

C.H.Spurgeob 



mm 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Shelf .A-U--4.S 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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SERMONS IN CANDLES: 

Two Legturrs 

UPON THE 

ILLUSTRATIONS WHICH MAYBE FOUND 
IN COMMON CANDLES 



BY 

REV. c? h; 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. R. S. MacARTHUR, D. D. " ^ 



The bright shining of a candle doth give thee light." Luke ii :^6- 



AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 



v 







5' 



COPYRIGHT, i3 9 i. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

By agreement with Messrs. Passmore & Alabaster, and 
with my full authority, this book is published in America by 
Messrs. Armstrong & Son, of New York. — C. H. S. 

By arrangement with Messrs. Armstrong & Son, it is also 
published by the American Tract Society. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This little volume by Rev. Charles H. Spur- 
geon charmingly discusses the illustrations 
which may be found in common candles. 
We congratulate the American publishers on 
the service which they render in publishing 
this little book ; and we congratulate all its 
readers on the privilege they will enjoy in 
studying its pages. Truly the versatility of 
Mr. Spurgeon is marvellous ; he is daily and 
hourly " anointed with fresh oil." This is cer- 
tainly one of the most charming and instructive 
of the many volumes which he has written. He 
tells us delightfully in the opening pages how 
the idea of this lecture was suggested. The 
little volume gives us striking proofs of his wide 
reading, his knowledge of history, his practical 
philosophy, and his ever-present religious pur- 
pose. He shows us how much of candle-light 
there is in the Holy Scriptures, and in so doing 
he mingles exegesis and exhortation in wise 
proportions. Most helpful are his remarks on 
candles in emblems, on candles lighting other 
candles, on different kinds of candles and can- 
dlesticks, on candles in lanterns, on candles un- 
der bushels, on candles that sputter, on candles 



11 INTRODUCTION. 

that are protected, on candles that are extin- 
guished, on candles that burn at both ends, on 
candles that unite with other candles, on can- 
dles that are short, and candles that are long, 
and still other kinds of candles. The illustra- 
tions in the little book are illustrations in truth ; 
it is a volume that can be read in a few hours, 
but which will occupy the thought and stimu- 
late the heart for days. It will delight the young 
as they gather about the reader under the light 
of chandelier, lamp, or candle ; and it will give 
instruction and comfort to the most experienced 
saint. It will furnish illustrations to the Sun- 
day-school teacher and to the pulpit expounder ; 
it has warmed my own heart, and has illumined 
for me many passages of Scripture and incidents 
of history. Wonderful man is this Spurgeon ! 
May God continue to have him in His holy keep- 
ing, making every product of his pen, even like 
the Bible itself, a lamp unto our feet and a light 
unto our path. 

R. S. MacARTHUR. 
Calvary Church. 

New York, January 24, 1891. 



Sermons in ©antrles 



Lecture No. 1. 



p ECTURING was once 
so common an exercise, 
that I have heard it said 
that all society might be 
divided into ' ' Lecturers 
and the Lectured " ; and 
the division was said to 
hold good both by night and by day; 
as Mr. and Mrs. Caudle could bear 
testimony. Lectures are now " the 
light of other days. r No longer is 
Exeter Hall crowded to hear a series 
of lectures by great divines ; and in 
vain do minor institutions invite an 
audience to "A Popular Lecture." The 
magic spell has departed : the lectured ones 
are delivered. Who is responsible for the 
falling ofi in attendance at lectures? Did 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



the talk become too dreary ? Were the 
prelections too abstruse or too common-place? 
Will mine be like them ? 

I am not an adept at lecturing, and when 
I take to it under constraint, I either signally 
fail in it, or else the successful production is 
a sermon in disguise. You cannot drive out 
nature by command : the old pulpit hand 
must preach, even though you bid him do 
somewhat else. It would be no good sign if 
it were otherwise ; for a man must keep to 
one thing, and be absorbed in it, or he will 
not do it well. I have preached now for so 
many years, that use is second nature ; and 
a lecture, a speech, an address, and I fear 
even a conversation, all have a tendency to 
mould themselves sermon-fashion. It is just 
the old story over again of the artist who had 
been painting red lions all his life. The 
landlord of a public-house in a certain street 
desired to have his establishment known as 
" The Angel", and he commissioned the clever 
gentleman of the brush to produce one of 
those flaming spirits. The budding Acade- 
mician replied, u You had better have a red 
lion. 1 can paint red lions against any man, 
and they seem the right sign for publicans 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



who do a roaring trade." " But ", said Boni- 
face, "there are three of your red lions 
quite handy already, and we want a little 
variety. I have made up my mind to have 
an angel. Cannot you arrange it ? " " Well " , 
said the artist, " I will see what I can do. 
You shall have your angel, but it will be 
awfully like a red lion." So, when I am 
requested to "lecture", I reply, " I cannot 
manage it ; my business is to preach." 
But if they press their suit, and I am weak 
enough to yield, I warn them that my 
lecture will be wonderfully like a sermon. 

I suppose " a lecture " signifies a reading ; 
but enough of my brethren use manuscripts, 
and I will not compete with them. If I can- 
not speak extemporaneously, I will hold my 
tongue : to read I am ashamed. 

In a lecture one has the advantage of 
more freedom than in a sermon. One is 
permitted to take a wider range of subjects, 
and to use an easier style than a theological 
discourse allows. I will use this freedom, 
but my aim will be the same as if I were 
preaching. I trust my lecture may possibly 
impress some minds to whom a sermon would 
seem too dull a business. By calling this 



6 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

lecture "Sermons in Candles", I claim the 
right to mingle the severe with the lively, 
the grave with the gay. In due proportions 
the mixture may be taken with good effect. 

This is how the lecture came about in the 
first place. It has grown considerably since 
it was born, as all lively children do. In 
addressing my students in the College long 
ago, I was urging upon them the duty and 
necessity of using plenty of illustrations in 
their preaching, that they might be both 
interesting and instructive. I reminded them 
that the Saviour had many likes in his 
discourses. He said, over and over again, 
" The kingdom of heaven is like" ; " The 
kingdom of heaven is like." " Without a 
parable spake he not unto them." The 
common people heard him gladly, because he 
was full of emblem and simile. A sermon 
without illustrations is like a room without 
windows. One student remarked that the 
difficulty was to get illustrations in any great 
abundance. "Yes", I said, "if you do not 
wake up, but go through the world asleep, 
you cannot see illustrations ; but if your 
minds were thoroughly aroused, and yet you 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



could see nothing' else in the world but a single 
tallow candle, you might find enough illus- 
trations in that luminary <to last you for six 
months." Now, the young brethren in the 
College are too well behaved to say "Oh! " 
or give a groan of unbelief, should I perchance 
say a strong thing ; but they loo7c, and they 
draw their breath, and they wait for an ex- 
planation. I understand what they mean, and 
do not make too heavy a draft upon their 
faith by long delays in explaining myself. 
The men who were around me at that parti- 
cular moment thought that I had made rather 
a sweeping assertion, and their countenances 
showed it. "Well", I said, " I will prove 
my words ; " and my attempt to prove them 
produced the rudiments of this lecture. 

To the nucleus thus obtained, other things 
have been added as the address has been 
repeated. The lecture is a cairn, upon which 
stone after stone has been thrown, till it has 
become a heap, in fact, two heaps. To use a 
figure from the subject itself — my candles 
have been dipped again and again, and each 
time they have grown in bulk, till I now feel 
that they are ready to go from the makers to 
the consumers. The matter has been moulded 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



under my own hand, but at the same time the 
materials are so various, that whether my 
candle is a dip, or a mould, or a composite, 
I leave to you to decide. 

This lecture of mine has proved a boon to 
several other public instructors, who have 
largely used it, and possibly have improved 
upon the original. I am sure they have not 
been more free than welcome. As I have 
taken out no letters-patent, I have never 
called upon them for a royalty for the use 
of my invention. Still, if their consciences 
trouble them, I am like Matthew, " at the 
receipt of custom." I have now resolved to 
print my lecture ; and I hope those gentlemen 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 9 

will not be angry with me for stopping their 
borrowing, but the rather I trust they will 
think me generous for having refrained from 
publishing the lecture for so long a period as 
five-and-twenty years. These candles have 
now become " ancient lights ", but I do not 
propose to prevent anybody's building near 
the premises ; for they will not block up my 
light. These symbols have light in them- 
selves which cannot be hid. My friends can 
go on delivering their own versions all the 
same ; and if they think fit, they may use the 
original text also. A man who would deliver 
the lecture, and sell the book at the close, 
might drive a good trade. In any case, the 
subject admits of further variations, and it can 
never be quite exhausted so long as lecturers 
have brains, and lectured ones have eyes* 

Candles were far more familiar objects in 
my boyhood than in these days of gas and 
electricity. Now, fathers show their boys 
and girls how to make gas at the end of a 
tobacco pipe; but in my time the greatest of 
wonders was a lucifer- match. Our lights 
were so few that they justified the wit who 
declared that the word " luxury " was derived 
from lux, the Latin for light. Assuredly, a 



10 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




good light is a high form of luxury. I can 
never forget the rushlight, which dimly 
illuminated the sitting-room of the old house; 
nor the dips, which were pretty fair when 
there were not too many of them to the 
pound; nor the mould candles, which came 
out only when there was a party, or some 
special personage was expected. Short sixes 
were very respectable specimens of household 
lights. Composites have never seemed to 
me to he so good as the old sort, made of 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 11 

pure tallow; but I dare say I may be wrong. 
Nevertheless, I have no liking for composites 
in theology, but prefer the genuine article 
without compromise. 

Once I thoughtlessly hung a pound of tallow 
candles on a clothes-horse. This construction 
was moved near the fire, and the result was a 
mass of fat on the floor, and the cottons of the 
candles almost divested of tallow : a lesson to 
us all not to expose certain things to a great 
heat, lest we dissolve them. I fear that many 
a man's good resolutions only need the 
ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt 
away. So, too, with fine professions, and the 
boastings of perfection which abound in this 
age of shams. 

The candle with a rush wick was the poor 
man's friend. Thrifty labourers' wives made 
them themselves; and White, in his Selborne, 
has a letter which gives quite an elaborate 
account of this economical home manufacture. 
Good housewives saved the skimmings of the 
bacon pot, precipitated the salt, and then put 
a little wax from their bee-hives into the 
grease. The rushes were gathered in summer, 
and steeped in water, the rinds removed, and 
the pith preserved entire. To dip the rushes 



12 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

in the scalding fat required great care ; but 
when the work was done, the labourer's house 
could be cheered in a small way with candle- 
light for 800 hours for three shillings. He adds 
that the very poor, who are always the worst 
economists, buy a half-penny candle every 
evening, and thus get only two hours' light 
for their money instead of eleven. Moral : 
there should be economy even in rushlights, 
how much more in consuming the light of life! 
In those days it was a youthful joke to send 
a boy to the shop for a pound of cotton rushes. 
The grocer, if of an angry sort, was apt to 
make a rush at the lad, w^ho thus appeared to 
mock him. It was in these times that we 
heard the story of the keeper of the chandler's- 
shop, who told her customers that " candles 
was riz." " Riz", said her neighbour, " every- 
thing is riz except my wages. But why have 
they riz?" " They tell me ", said the other, 
" that tallow has gone up because of the war 
with Russia." " Well ", replied the customer, 
" that is a queer story. Have they begun to 
fight by candle-light?" That woman had 
some inkling of the law of supply and demand. 
She may never have read Adam Smith, but 
it is possible that she was a Smith herself. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



13 



Those were the days when a wit is repre- 
sented as saying to his tradesman, "I hope 
these candles will be better than the last." 
" I am sure I don't know, sir ; was anything 
the matter with those I sent you ? " " Matter 
enough", replied the wit ; " they burned very 
well till they were about half gone, and then 
they would burn no longer." The catch is 
that, of course, they burned shorter, 

We had prac- 
tical fun with 
candles, too; for 
we would scoop 
out a turnip, cut 
eyes and a nose 
in the rind, and 
then put a can- 
dle inside. This 
could be ju- 
diciously used 
to amuse, but it might also be injudiciously 
turned to purposes of alarming youngsters 
and greenhorns, who ran away, under the 
apprehension that a ghost was visible. Other 
things beside turnips can be used to frighten 
foolish people ; but it is a shame to use the 
light of truth with such a design. 




14 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



I do not think I ever saw the smoke of a 
candle employed as Swift suggests, when he 
says to servants in general, " Write your 
own names and your sweethearts' with the 
smoke of a candle, on the roof of the kitchen 
or servants' hall, to show your learning ; " 
but smudges caused by candle-snuffs were 
not unusual in slovenly rooms. 

No doubt the youths in my audience have 
found a candle helpful in astronomical obser- 
vations, when they have smoked glass over 
a candle to use it in watching an eclipse. 
Many are the side uses of every useful article. 
^rWlTTv I have a distinct re- 

membrance of a mission- 
room, where my father 
frequently preached, 
which was illuminated 
by candles in tin sconces 
which hung on the wall. 
These luminaries fre- 
quently went very dim 
for want of snuffing, 
and on one occasion an 
old man, who wanted to 
see his hymn-book, took 
the candle from its original place : out of his 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 15 

hand he made a candlestick ; his finger and 
thumb he used as a pair of snuffers ; and, 




finding it needful to cough, he accidentally 
made use of his mouth as an extinguisher. 
Thus the furniture of a candle was all con- 
tained in his proper person. 

That wild wit, Dean Swift, in his advice 
to servants, says, " There are several ways 
of putting out candles, and you ought to be 
instructed in them all : you may run the 
candle end against the wainscot, which puts 
the snuff out immediately ; you may lay it 
on the ground, and tread the snuff out with 
your foot ; you may hold it upside down, 
until it is choked with its own grease, or 
cram it into the socket of the candlestick; 
you may whirl it round in your hand till it 
goes out ; or you may spit on your finger 
and thumb, and pinch the snuff till it goes 
out. The cook may rub the candle's nose 



16 SERMONS IN CANDLES 

into the meal tub, or the groom into a vessel 
of oats, or a lock of hay, or a heap of litter ; 
the housemaid may put out her candle by 
running it against the looking-glass, which 
nothing cleans so well as candle-snuff; but 
the quickest and best of all methods is to 
blow it out with your breath, which leaves 
the candle clean and readier to be lighted." 
Some part or other of this advice must have 
been frequently followed, for an extinguisher 
was not always close at hand. 

By the way, a candle blown out did not 
yield the most delicate of perfumes, neither 
was a street rendered delicious by having a 
candle-factory in it. There used to be, in 
Paternoster Row, an establishment which was 
odiously odorous, but we were always assured 
that the smell was not unhealthy. Perhaps 
it was not ; but we confess we should have 
preferred to avoid the experiment. In the 
formation of the best of things there may be 
disagreeable processes. As to the smoke of 
a candle which is newly put out, we may 
remark upon it that the failure of a life 
which should have been a light is a very 
sickening calamity. If the light of professors 
of religion is blown out, the result is most 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 17 

unsavoury. How well it is for us that we 
have to deal with One of whom it is written, 
" A smoking flax will he not quench " ! Even 
when faith is so low that we are rather an 
offence than an illumination, he will not 
quench it, so tender is his love. 

When preaching in a low-pitched building 
crowded with people, I have seen the candles 
burn low for want of air, a clear indication 
that we were killing ourselves by inhaling an 
atmosphere from which the vitalizing prin- 
ciple had almost all gone. I have been afraid 
of the lights going out, and have thought 
it better to let the congregation go out 
rather sooner than usual. To this day venti- 
lation remains an unknown art. The various 
schemes which have been so much cried up 
are admirable upon paper ; and there they 
had better remain. Oh, that we could have 
more oxygen in our p]aces of worship ! It 
would be next to the grace of God for value. 

On one occasion, having a candle on each 
side of me in a small pulpit, I was somewhat 
vigorous, and dashed one of my luminaries 
from its place. It fell upon the bald head 
of a friend below, who looked up with an 
expression which I can see at this moment, 
2 



18 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

and it makes me smile still. I took no more 
notice of the accident than to weave it into 
what I was saying; and I believe most of 
my hearers considered it to have been a 
striking practical illustration of the remark 
which accompanied it, " How soon is the 
glory of life dashed down ! " 

Before my time the candles in places of 
worship offered a sad temptation to ungodly 
men and boys, who would bring sparrows in 
their pockets, and let them fly during the 
evening service. The poor birds made at 
once for the lights, and no end of confusion 
was the consequence. German critics and 
their humble admirers play the part of these 
sparrows nowadays with the great lights of 
inspired Scripture. 

Outside some of the older meeting-houses 
there used to be a wooden stand near the 
grave-yard gate, on which a lantern was 
placed with a candle within it, to light the 
way to the place where prayer was wont 
to be made. The natural light was dim in 
those times ; but I am old-fashioned enough 
to believe that the gospel light was in many 
a lowly sanctuary far more brilliant than it is 
to-day in mimic Gothic chapels. The blaze 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 19 

of " modern thought" which pleases lovers 
of novelty does not guide the perplexed to 
heaven, nor cheer the passage of the departing 
through the valley of the shadow of death. 

In our time we have smeared our boots 
with a tallow candle to keep out the wet 
when, we have had to tramp through the snow 
and the water; and we have also tallowed our 
nose when it has been running with a cold. 
Still, we cannot conscientiously recommend 
the old prescription (dated 1430?) which we 
find recorded in doggerel rhyme : — 

" Put jour feet in hot water 
As high as your thighs ; 
Wrappe your head up in nanelle 
As low as your eyes ; 

' ; Take a quart of rum'd gruelle 
When in bed as a dose ; 
With a number four dippe 
Well tallow your nose." 

I take the liberty of suggesting that if the 
rum were poured into the hot water provided 
for the feet it would be more likely to be 
useful than when put into the gruel. The 
candle will be quite sufficient to make the 
nose to shine, without setting it on fire with 
ardent spirits. 



20 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

I remember reading, when I went to school, 
a capital story illustrating presence of mind, 
and it comes to my remembrance, after nearly 
fifty years. The anecdote is in Chambers' 
Moral Class Book, and is much too good 
to be lost. 

" In Edinburgh, in the reign of Greorge II., 
there was a grocer named George Dewar, 
who, besides teas, sugar, and other articles, 
now usually sold by grocers, dealt extensively 
in garden seeds. Underneath* his shop he 
had a cellar, in which he kept a great quantity 
of his merchandise. One day he desired his 
servant-maid to go down to the cellar with a 
candle to fetch him a supply of a particular 
kind of soap kept there. The girl went to 
do her master's bidding, but she imprudently 
did not provide herself with a candlestick, and 
therefore found it necessary, while filling her 
basket with pieces of soap, to stick the candle 
into what she thought a bag of black seed, 
which stood open by her side. In returning, 
both her hands were required to carry the 
basket, so that she had to leave the candle 
where it was. When Mr. Dewar saw her 
coming up the trap-door without the candle, 
he asked her where she had left it ? She 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 21 

replied that she had stuck it into some black 
seed near the place where the soap lay. He 
instantly recollected that this black seed was 
gunpowder, and he knew that a single spark 
falling from the candle would blow up the 
house. He also knew that the candle, if left 
where it was, would, in a little time, burn 
down to the powder. To fly, then, was 
to make the destruction of his house and 
property certain, while to go down and 
attempt to take away the candle, was to run 
the risk of being destroyed himself; for he 
could not tell that a spark was not to fall 
the next instant into the powder. He made 
up his mind in a moment, and descended 
into the cellar. There he saw the candle 
burning brightly in the midst of the bag 
of gunpowder. He approached softly, lest, 
by putting the air in motion, he might 
cause the candle to sparkle. Then, stoop- 
ing with the greatest deliberation over the 
sack, he formed his hands into a hollow, 
like the basin of a bedroom candlestick, and 
clasped the candle between his fingers. He 
thus had the chance of catching any spark 
which might fall : none, however, fell, and 
he bore away the candle in safety." 



22 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Bravo Mr. Dewar ! But why did you leave 
your powder where your maid could run you 
into so great a risk? Presence of mind is 
greatly to be commended, but general care- 
fulness may prevent the need of so great a 
demand upon courage as this case required. 

I could multiply my reminiscences, but 
my business is not so much to lecture upon 
candles themselves as upon the sermons which 
lie within them. The Esquimaux consider 
tallow candles a great luxury ; and I have 
met with a missionary who assured me that 
in the far North of America he had learned 
greatly to prefer a candle to a piece of sugar 
or any other dainty. May not tastes be thus 
perverted in reference to spiritual things ? 
Is it not often so ? 

I will not offer you a discussion upon the 
physical or chemical nature of candles. I 
will not feed you on candles, for you have 
not the educated taste of my friend from 
the Hudson's Bay Territory. No, I will give 
you candle-light, and not the candles them- 
selves ; but if vou would know all about them, 
read a capital set of lectures entitled, Fara- 
day on the Chemical History of a Candle* 

* Published by Chatto & Windus. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 23 

All this time I have been guilty of a terrible 
omission: / have not defined a candle ; and 
how can a man know anything, or teach any- 
thing, if he is not very careful to describe the 
subject of his discourse in the most difficult 
manner conceivable ? I regret that I caunot 
find a regular jaw-breaking definition in any 
of the dictionaries : they have treated the sub- 
ject in too light a manner, and have not by 
any means confounded and obfuscated the 
word "candle" as it deserves to be confounded 
and obfuscated. The " Century Dictionary " 
describes it as "a taper: a cylindrical body 
of tallow, wax, spermaceti, or other fatty 
material, formed on a wick composed of linen 
or cotton threads woven or twisted loosely, or 
(as formerly) of the pith of a rush, and used as 
a source of artificial light." This is all very 
well ; but how much more we might have 
known if the lexicographer had called candles 
"Nascent possibilities of illumination ma- 
terialized in oleaginous cylindrical forms " ! 
It is some comfort, that while certain great 
linguists derive the word from the Latin, 
candela, which comes from candere, to burn ; 
others take it from the Welsh, which I guess 
must be llandyllyn, to blaze ; and a third 



24 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

party perceive its origin in the ancient 
Danish, kindil, to burn or kindle. Do you 
not all feel the better for these learned criti- 
cisms ? Would you not feel safer still, if I 
could assure you that luminous and volumi- 
nous scientists have had serious doubts as to 
whether candles were known to the ancients 
at all ; and if so, whether, indeed, there are 
such things now extant ? Alfred the Great 
is said to have invented lanterns to preserve 
his candles from the draughts which came 
into his hall through windows which were 
innocent of glass; but this is extremely 
doubtful. Only the fossilized believer accepts 
the popular belief: the learned critic sees 
things in another light, or rather does not 
see them at all. According to the learned 
Dr. Batseyes, there would seem to have 
been two Alfreds, one who allowed the cakes 
to burn, and another wl^o went to battle with 
the Danes. There does not appear to be any 
justification for believing that either of these 
Alfreds could have cared about candles so 
much as to invent lanterns for their pro- 
tection. A person who would allow cakes 
to burn would scarcely be careful of mere 
tallow candles ; and a man who fought with 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 25 

the Danes was far more likely to put the fat 
into the fire than to preserve it from the wind. 
What think you of that ? There is more in it 
than in most of the Biblical criticisms which 
I have met with. I am rather pleased with 
my historic doubt. With a little effort I 
fancy I could qualify myself to be a practiser 
of Destructive Criticism ; but I conceive that 
the game would not be worth the candle, 
and I should only be doing* more of that 
which is already overdone. 

It would be too great a task for me to guide 
you into every corner in history or archaeology 
where the candle leads the way. But there 
are a few odds and ends which may be worth 
picking up. Candle-ends must not be wasted, 
but put upon the save-all, and used for a good 
purpose. 

Diogenes with his lantern lives before us, 
as he ranges through the city in the glare 
of the sun, looking for an honest man. He 
could not dispense with his light even now, 
if he went to some places in our land — I mean 
not exclusively the parliaments of politicians ; 
there are religious assemblies where his lan- 
tern would not be unnecessary. 



26 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



Alfred the Great, to 
whom we have already 
referred, is said to have 
measured time by the 
burning of candles, mark- 
ing them, we suppose, so 
that so much candle meant 
an hour. No wonder, that 
to secure accuracy in his 
chronometer, he invented 
a shield in the form of a 
lantern, to keep off the 
draughts which would 
cause his measurers of 
time to burn away in no 
time. 

Our forefathers kept a festival knoAvn as 
Candlemas : it comes on February 2nd, and 
celebrates the Purification of the Virgin, and 
the Presentation of the infant Christ in the 
Temple. The feast takes its name from the 
custom, as old as the seventh century, of 
carrying lighted candles in procession, in 
memory of Simeon's w T ords (Luke ii. 32), 
"A light to lighten the Gentiles." 

On this day Roman Catholics consecrate 
the candles to be used in their churches 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



27 



throughout the year. The feast is retained 
in the Anglican and Lutheran churches. It 
is frequently called The Purification. In 
Scotland, Candlemas is one of the quarter 
days for paying and receiving rents, interest, 
school fees, &c. In former days the boy 
who brought his dominie the largest present 
was made king of the school. Poor honours 
which could thus be bought ! How like most 
of the glories of the world ! 




Christmas Eve has its candles to light up 
the Christmas tree. Our German friends 



28 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

observe this pretty ceremony with great care, 
to the great delight of the juniors of the 
family. Among the things in Luther's life 
which charm all hearts, were his enjoyment 
of music and his delight in the children's 
Christmas tree. 

In Chaucer's England one hears little 
of candles ; but in the list of articles of a 
manor-house of the time we read of " an iron 
or latten candlestick,'' meaning, we suppose. 
an iron candlestick covered with brass, or 
a brass candlestick. Ancient candlesticks, 




such as we arc able to set before you, were more 
solid than elegant, and look as if they might 
have been copied from an hour-glass. After 
long research in olden history for some hints 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 29 

about candles, a friend, who noticed our failure, 
suggested that we should search through a 
History of Greece ; but we did not give him 
a fig, much less a groat, for his puny wit. 
Of old, the Shunammitish woman, who had a 
prophet's chamber, had provided a candlestick 
for the man of God ; but far nearer our own 
day a domestic candlestick seems to have been 
a rare tiling in this country. Until windows 
were supplied with glass, naked candles must 
have been too liable to be blown out to be 
used without lanterns. Moreover, we suspect 
that our fathers were not so apt to turn night 
into day as we are, but went to bed with the 
lamb, and rose with the lark. They lost 
somewhat by this habit ; but possibly they 
gained more. The curfew, which put out 
all lights at an early hour, has been repre- 
sented as an instrument of tyranny ; but in all 
probability it was a needful social regulation 
to prevent the frequent fires which fell out in 
wooden houses, where the floor was covered 
with rushes, and candles were apt to be care- 
lessly used. On the whole, we do not weep 
very bitterly over " the good old times", 
when we sit at ease far into the night, and 
read by the electric light. 



30 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



The making of lanterns would seem to 
have been a flourishing trade in the olden 
time. Many were made of horn ; but we have 
seen an engraving in which tin or thin iron 
would seem to be largely used. 




Excommunications were pronounced by 
11 Bell, book, and candle. '' After the formula 
had been read, and the book closed, the 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 31 

assistants cast the lighted candles, they held in 
their hands, to the ground, so as to extinguish 
them, and the bells were clashed without 
order: the last two ceremonies symbolized 
the quenching of grace, and the disorder in 
the souls of the persons excommunicated. 
Now we understand why 

' ' The Cardinal rose with a dignified look, 
He call'd for his candle, his bell, and his book ! 
In holy anger and pious grief 
He solemnly cursed that rascally thief ! " 

There was a special warning form of the same 
terrible punishment wherein the sinner was 
allowed space for repentance so long as a 
candle continued to burn. If he expressed 
no regret till the light was out, he was cast 
off; but while the candle yet would burn, 
the vilest sinner might return. 

While remembering the holy candles of 
the Church of Rome, one cannot forget the 
miracles conne3ted with these humble house- 
hold luminaries. 

We quote from Hone's " Every -clay Booh. 

" Several stories of the miraculous faculties 
of St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, 
represent them as very convenient in vexa- 
tious cases of ordinary occurrence; one of 



32 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

these will serve as a specimen. On a dark, 
wet night she was going to church witli her 
maidens with a candle borne before her, 
which the wind and rain put out ; the saint 
merely called for the candle, and as soon as 
she took it in her hand it was lighted again, 
without any fire of this world. 

" Other stories of her lighting candles in this 
way call to mind a candle, greatly venerated 
by E. Worsley in ' A Discourse of Miracles 
wrought in the Roman Catholic Church, or, a 
Full Refutation of Dr. Stillingfleet' s unjust 
Exceptions against Miracles,'' 8vo, 1676. At 
page 64, he says, ' that the miraculous wax 
candle yet seen at Arras, the chief city of 
Artois, may give the reader entertainment, 
being most certain, and never doubted by any. 
In 1105, that is, more than 500 years ago* (of 
so great antiquity the candle is), a merciless 
plague reigned in Arras. The whole city, 
ever devout to the Mother of Grod, experienced 
her, in this their necessity, to be a true mother 
of mercy. The manner w r as thus : the Virgin 
Mary appeared to two men, and enjoined 
them to tell the Bishop of Arras, that on the 
next Saturday, towards morning, she would 

* Now nearly 800, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 33 

appear in the great church, and put into his 
hands a wax caudle burning ; from whence 
drops of wax should fall into a vessel of water 
prepared by the bishop. She said, moreover, 
that all the diseased that drank of this water 
should forthwith be cured. This, truly pro- 
mised, truly happened. Our Blessed Lady 
appeared all beautiful, having in her hands a 
wax candle burning, which diffused light over 
the whole church ; this she presented to the 
bishop ; he, blessing it with the sign of the 
cross, set it in the urn of water ; when drops 
of wax plentifully fell down into the vessel. 
The diseased drank of it, all were cured, the 
contagion ceased, and the candle, to this day 
preserved with great veneration, spends itself, 
yet loses nothing ; and therefore remains still 
of the same length and greatness it did 500 
years ago. A vast quantity of wax, made 
up of the many drops which fall into the 
water upon those festival days, when the 
candle burns, may be justly called a standing, 
indeficient miracle." 

This candle story, though gravely related 

by a Catholic writer, as ' not doubted of by 

any', and as, therefore, not to be questioned, 

altogether failed in convincing the Protestant 

3 



34 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Stillingfleet, that tc miracles wrought in 
the Roman Catholic Church " ought to be 
believed. It £ails with us also. 

Even these lying wonders are more plea- 
sant reading than the stories which relate 
to the use of candles in the conversion of 
Protestant heretics. They had their choice 
either to turn or burn, and judicious prose- 
lyters gave the obstinate a little taste of 
flame beforehand, to save them from the 
greater fire. Here are two precious stories 
from the famous " Acts and Monuments.'' 

Fox tells us concerning Thomas Tomkins, 
a weaver, of Shoreditch, who was burned at 
Smithfield, that Bishop Bonner kept him in 
prison at Eulham half -a-y ear, ei during which 
time the said bishop was so rigorous with 
him, that he beat him bitterly about the face ; 
whereby his face was swelled 

" The rage of this bishop was not so great 
against him, but the constancy of the sufferer 
was much greater with patience to bear it ; 
who, although he had not the learning as 
others had, yet he was so endued with God's 
mighty Spirit, and so perfectly planted in the 
knowledge of God's truth, that by no means 
could he be removed from the confession of 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 35 

the truth. Whereupon Bonner the bishop 
being greatly vexed against the poor man, 
when he saw that by no persuasions he could 
prevail against him, devised another practice 
not so strange as 'cruel, further to try his con- 
stancy ; to the intent, that seeing he could 
not otherwise convince him by doctrine out of 
the Scriptures, yet he might overthrow him 
by a fore-feeling and terror of death. So he 
calls for Thomas Tomkins, who, coming before 
the bishop, and standing as he was wont, in 
defence of his faith, the bishop having there 
a taper or wax candle of three or four wicks 
standing upon the table, took Tomkins by 
the fingers, and held his hand directly over 
the flame, supposing that by the smart and 
pain of the fire being terrified, he would leave 
off the defence of his Protestant doctrine. 

"Tomkins, thinking no otherwise but there 
presently to die, began to commend himself 
unto the Lord, saying, ' Lord ! into thy 
hands I commend my spirit.' In the time that 
his hand was in burning, the same Tomkins 
afterward reported to one James Hinse, that 
'his spirit was so rapt that he felt no pain.' 
In the which burning he never quailed, till 
the veins shrank and the sinews burst." 



36 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

If a bishop acted thus, we do not wonder 
that the more brutal ones among the bigoted 
laity did the like. Here is another record 
from that Fox who spied out and laid bare 
the doings of Romish devotees. 

" On the 2nd of August, 1557, five men 
and five women were burnt at Colchester, 
for the testimony and witness of Christ 
Jesus and his glorious gospel. In the number 
was one William Mount, of Much Bentley, 
in Essex, husbandman, with Alice, his wife, 
and Rose Allin, maid, the daughter of the 
said Alice Mount. 

" At two o'clock on a Sunday morning in 
March, one master Edmund Tyrrel took with 
him the bailiff, and two constables, with 
divers others, a great number. Going into 
the room where father Mount and his wife 
lay, they bade them rise, for that they must 
go to Colchester Castle. Mother Mount, being 
very ill, asked that her daughter might fetch 
her some drink. This Tyrrel permitted. So 
Rose Mount took a stone jug in one hand, and 
a candle in the other, and went to draw drink 
for her mother ; and as she came back again 
through the house, Tyrrel met her, and 
willed her to give her father and mother good 



SEKMONS IN CANDLES. 



37 




38 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

counsel, and advertise them to be better 
Catholic people." Thus they conversed : — 

Hose: — "Sir, they have a better instructor than I; 
xor the Holy Grhost doth teach them, I hope ; and he, 
be ye sure, will not suffer them to err." 

" Why?" said master Tyrrel, " art thou still in that 
mind, thou naughty house-wife? Marry, it is time to 
look upon such heretics indeed." 

Rose : — " Sir, with that which you call heresy, do I 
worship my Lord God ; I tell you truth." 

Tyrrel : — "Then I perceive you will burn, gossip, 
with the rest, for company's sake." 

Hose: — "No, sir, not for company's sake, but for 
my Lord Jesus Christ's sake, if so I be compelled ; and 
I hope in his mercies if he call me to it, he will enable 
me to bear it." 

So he, turning to his company, said, " Sirs, this gossip 
will burn : do you not think it ? " " Marry, sir ", quoth 
one, "prove her, and ye shall see what she will do by- 
and-by." 

' ; Then the cruel Tyrrel, taking the candle 
from her, held her wrist, and put the burning 
candle under her hand, burning cross-wise 
over the back thereof so long, till the very 
sinews cracked asunder." Yet the brave 
Rose endured the pain like a true heroine, 
and then went and fetched her mother the 
drink. 

How many of us, who preach with much con- 
fidence, could have endured the like torture ? 



SERMONS TN CANDLES. 39 

Let us hope that if we were called to such pain, 
grace would be given to sustain us under it. 

One is soon weary of such quotations, and 
we will leave them when we have reminded 
ourselves of the brave word of old Latimer. 
When standing on the fagots, with his back 
to the stake, he turned round to his brother 
Bishop, Ridley, and said, " Be of good com- 
fort, Master Ridley, and play the man, and 
we shall this day light such a candle, by 
God's grace, in England, as I trust shall 
never be put out " : and so say all of us. 

In the City of London, in olden times, the 
streets being unlighted by public lamps, and 
thieves being plentiful, a law was made for 
everybody to put a candle out over his 
door. As the story comes to me, the law was 
obeyed — a candle was exhibited, but it was 
not lighted. The letter of the law was dark- 
ness, for the spirit of the law was absent. 

The wise Corporation had to meet and 
ordain a regulation that everybody should 
light the candle which by law was to be over 
his door. So they did ; but after it had been 
lighted according to law the wind blew it 
out, and again the citizens saved their tallow. 



40 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

The City fathers made another alteration in 
their edict, and decreed that everybody should 
hang a lantern over his door. This was soon 
accomplished ; but the householders put no 
candle in the lantern. The Corporation has 
always been amazingly wise, and is so still. 
You laugh, but my reverence for all public 
bodies is so great that you cannot suppose 
that I intended anything sarcastic. The 
Council went over the old ground, and settled 
that the lantern should have a candle in it. 
Again, the good folks did as they were bidden, 
but they did not light the candle. This called 
forth the decree that in the lantern there 
should be a lighted candle. Canny citizens 
put only a very small length of candle ; and 
though it was soon burnt out, they could not 
be charged with a breach of the law in that 
case made and provided. The Corporation 
specified the length of the candle to be lighted, 
but I dare say clever people still dodged the 
law. It is never difficult to drive a coach and 
four through the Acts of Parliaments and 
Corporations. There is one way of doing .a 
right thing, but there are dozens of ways of 
not doing it ; and people are very ingenious 
at avoiding rules which involve expense. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



41 



Candles suggest save-alls, ana economical 
minds need not that the hint be repeated. 
Misers have been known to go to bed to save 
candle for themselves; what would they not do 
to escape burning a candle for other people ? 




The watchmen of our city were in the old 
time the themes of constant jest. They had 



42 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

come to be venerable persons wrapped in 
capes of many folds, and night-caps of the 
warmest sort : each one of these had his 
lantern, with which he emulated in the streets 
the glow-worms of the country lanes. Stowe 
represents these guardians of the night as 
carrying and using bells to give warning to 
householders to put out fire, and light candle. 
Nice helps to repose these old gentlemen must 
have been, especially if they conscientiously 
obeyed orders, and both knocked at doors 
and sounded their alarums to wake people 
out of their first sleep to look to their 
candles ! All very pretty it sounds in the 
rhyme, but not quite so delightful if heard 
in the still of night. 

11 A light here, maids, hang oat your light, 
And see your horns be clean and bright, 
That so your candle clear may shine, 
Continuing from six till nine ; 
That honest men that walk along 
May see to pass safe without wrong." 

In the days of Henry VIII. the citizens of 
London did little in the way of hanging out 
candles, and hence men cut purses in the 
dark with impunity. Harry's remedy was, 
" Hang up the thieves, and let honest men 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 43 

keep indoors." Very thoroughly did he 
practise his own rule, so that it is recorded 
that three-score and twelve thousand petty 
thieves were hung up during his reign. 
Poor saving this, to spare the hanging out 
of candles and indulge in the hanging up of 
men! There can be no doubt that good light 
is the friend of honesty and the destruction 
of thieves. This is a parable which we need 
not wait to expound. 

Many bequests have been left for the 
keeping up of lights, especially in places near 
the river Thames. I will give you a specimen. 
John Wardall, by will, dated 29th August, 
1656, gave to the Grocers' Company a tene- 
ment called " The White Bear ", in Walbrook, 
to the intent that they should yearly, within 
thirty days after Michaelmas, pay to the 
Churchwardens of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, 
£4, to provide a good and sufficient iron and 
glass lantern, with a candle, for the direction 
of passengers to go with more security to and 
from the water-side all night long, to be fixed 
at the north-east corner of the parish church 
of St. Botolph, from the feast day of St. 
Bartholomew to Lady Day. Out of this sum 
£1 was to be paid to the sexton for taking 



44 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

care of the lantern. It is well in life and in 
death to minister light to this dark world. 
It was a curious way of expressing his appre- 
ciation of a politician, when Mr. Alderman 
White, of Winchester, sent Wilkes, the author 
of the notorious Number 45, a present of forty- 
five dozens of candles. Possibly the worthy 
Alderman had an eye to advertisement as well 
as to admiration. At any rate, he succeeded ; 
for the wags, one of whom signs himself Will 
Wickham, immortalized him in their verses. 
" What hero, what king, 
Sweet muse, wilt thou sing ? 
What alderman venture to handle ? — 
No subject so bright 
As Alderman White, 
And his forty-five dozen of candle. 

•& i(- # # # 

From him the bright name 

Of freedom shall flame, 
And all who that cause understand ill 

May see wrong from right, 

By the true patriot light 
Of forty -five dozen of candle. 

On a theme so sublime, 
I for ever would rhyme, 
But my muse I no longer shall dandle ; 
So I wish you good-night, 
Mr. Alderman White ; 
But beware of a thief in the candle." 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



45 







We must not fail to mention Hogarth! s 
famous drawing of The Politician. That 
admirable publication, The Penny Magazine 
in the year 1834, had such an excellent 
exposition of the picture, that I cannot 



46 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

forbear to quote it in full. " This piece of 
exquisite humour, is said to have been 
suggested to Hogarth by a living and well- 
known character in his day, a Mr. Tibson, 
laceman in the Strand, who preferred politics 
to trade, and the Gazetteer newspaper to 
the ledger and day-book. Never was a 
ruling passion — an intentness on a favourite 
subject— more happily portrayed than in 
the print before us. The mere position or 
seat of the old quidnunc tells a story ! From 
the way in which he has squared himself in 
his chair, you may see he is a man deter- 
mined not to budge until he has conned his 
dear paper through to the last line, word, and 
syllable. His short, stout legs, with those 
broad bases of high-quartered shoes, are set 
down on the floor like pillars ! It would 
require a dray-horse to drag him from his 
occupation ! 

" To throw a full, clear light on his sheet 
(the only sheet, we may be sure, he ever 
reads), he has taken his tallow candle from 
its socket, and, indifferent to the abomina- 
tion of grease, holds it in his right hand, 
whilst his left hand grasps his journal — the 
Benjamin of his heart. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 47 



11 The ascending flame has set fire to his hat, 
has literally burnt a hole through its broad 
brim. The candle has also fearfully burnt 
down and has guttered ; the red-hot wick and 
the base of the flame are within the eighth of 
an inch of his finger, and it is difficult to say 
which part of him will be burnt first, his fore- 
head, his nose, or his unflinching hand. But 
what of that? He is rapt, and altogether 
unconscious of his danger, and on he will 
read until the fire reaches him. Look at his 
countenance the while ! with its deep lines of 
thought, and the half acute and half solemn 
compression of his lips ! . There is many a 
siege and blockade in the dropping corner of 
that mouth, and a campaign or a treaty in 
every wrinkle of that face ! * * * 

" Thanks to the introduction of narrow- 
brimmed hats, there is now no danger of our 
quidnuncs setting fire to their beavers. 
Their heads, indeed, are sometimes heated 
by flaming paragraphs ; but the heat is all 
inward. There are political occasions on 
which the people have to think and to act, 
as far as they can act legally ; but the only 
way to think and to act rightly is to be cool, 
and not set their hats or their heads on fire." 



48 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



In the days of the great Napoleon the rage 
of English people against Boney knew no 
bounds. Woodward designed a cartoon 
entitled " The Corsican Moth", which flying 
towards the candle is made to say, " It is a 
very fierce flame ; I am afraid I shall singe 
my wings!" Old George III., just below 
the candlestick, is muttering " Thou little 
contemptible insect, I shall see thee con- 
sumed by-and-by!" We are glad that no 
such irrational hate now stirs our population 

with enmity to 
France. There 
is no need for me 
to moralize upon 
the moth and the 
candle ; yet it. 
were well if some 
who have been 
already injured 
by vicious courses 
could have the 
sense to shun 
those evils which 
have already 
wrought them so 
much ill. 




SERMONS IN CANDLES, 49 

It brings us back to the dark ages, when 
we find that, so late as 1836, His Majesty 
William IV. was dependent upon wax 
candles for the due delivery of his speech to 
Parliament. I will give you the passage : — 

A Royal Speech by Candlelight. 
" The opening day of the Session of 
Parliament, in 1836 (February 4), was 
unusually gloomy, which, added to an im- 
perfection in the sight of King William IV., 
and the darkness of the House, rendered it 
impossible for His Majesty to read the Royal 
Speech with facility. Most patiently and 
good-naturedly did he struggle with the task, 
often hesitating, sometimes mistaking, and at 
others correcting himself. On one occasion 
he stuck altogether, and after two or three 
ineffectual efforts to make out the word, he 
was obliged to give it up, when, turning to 
Lord Melbourne, who stood on his right 
hand, and looking him most significantly in 
the face, he said, in a tone sufficiently loud 
to be audible in all parts of the House, 
' Eh ! what is it ? ' Lord Melbourne having 
whispered the obstructing word, the King 
proceeded to toil through the speech; but 



50 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



by the time he got to about the middle, 
the librarian brought him two wax-lights, 
on which he suddenly paused ; then raising 
his head, and looking at the Lords and 
Commons, he addressed them on the spur of 
the moment, in a perfectly distinct voice, and 
without the least embarrassment or mistake 
of a single word, in these terms : — 

" ' My Lords and Gentlemen, — I have 
hitherto not been able, from want of light, 
to read this speech in the way its importance 
deserves ; but as lights are now brought me, 
I will read it again from the commencement, 
and in a way which, I trust, will command 
your attention/ 

" The King, though evidently fatigued by 
the difficulty of reading in the first instance, 
began at the beginning, and read through 
the speech in a manner which vould have 
done credit to a professor of elocution! " 

Ladies and Gentlemen, it would seem to 
be a wonder, that a King should be able 
to read without fainting away ! When he 
does his royal best he seems to be nearly as 
good as "a professor of elocution." This is 
not saying much. People who try to flatter 
riders generally succeed in making them 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 51 

ridiculous. Think of his Majesty's being 
able to deliver an extempore speech of one 
sentence ! Wonders will never cease. 

Let us get to our " Sermons in Candles" in 
real earnest. We will begin with the candle- 
light which we find in Holy Scripture. 

The golden candlestick of the Tabernacle 
and Temple may hardly be mentioned in this 
place, for it w r as rather a seven-branched stand 
for oil lamps than for candles. Its representa- 
tion on the arch of Titus at Rome is visible 
to all j and stands as an enduring testimony 
to the truth of Holy Scripture. 

Our Lord walks among the golden candle- 
sticks of his churches ; but these again are 
candelabra or lamp-stands. In a country 




where olive oil abounded so much as in 
Palestine, there was no need of the candle 



52 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

of our colder climate — the lamp being so 
readily supplied with the best of fuel. These 
lamps were of many forms ; but what mattered 
it. so long as their light was good ? Many 
are the methods of the churches, but the main 
thing is to shine with Gospel light. 

In the Word of God, we read of candles 
in different connections; but my previous 
remark applies to all the passages. The 
probability is that they all relate to lamps. 
That, however, shall not hinder me from 
speaking upon them. Candles are mentioned 
in relation to the character and condition of 
wicked men. Job (xviii. 6) says, — " The light 
shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle 
shall be put out with him. r His light never 
was that of the Sun of Righteousness, but he 
set up the candle of creature-comfort, that he 
might forget the night of his soul. Yet even 
this was but a temporary light, a mere candle 
which melted as it shone. God is against the 
ungodly man, and therefore, in due season, 
his very light will become darkness, and even 
his small joy will be gone like a candle which 
is blown out. In all cases a candle is doomed 
to cease its shining sooner or later. It comes 
to an end by gradual and natural consumption, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 53 

even if all goes well with it ; but in the case 
mentioned in the text, it is quenched by 
violence, or "put out." How great is the 
darkness of the sinner in such a case! If 
the believer has his candlestick of earthly 
comfort removed out of its place, his Grod still 
abides with him; and therefore he rejoices 
in heavenly light, and does not stumble ; but 
when the ungodly lose their candle, they have 
lost all; and so Job adds, "The steps of 
his strength shall be straitened, and his own 
counsel shall cast him down." When the lamp 
goes out in the Arab tent, all is gloomy and 
desolate; and hence the misery which is 
symbolized by the quenching of the candle 
is great. 

In another place Job(xxi. 17) says, — "How 
oft is the candle of the wicked put out ! " 
Suddenly the glory, the prosperity, yea, the 
very life of the wicked may come to an end. 
It has been so in hundreds of cases. Some 
think the passage means "How seldom!" 
rather than " How often ! " Assuredly, the 
righteous have often considered providence to 
be slack in its dealings with the ungodly : but 
is it not great long-suffering which spares the 
guilty, in the hope of their repentance ? Why 



54 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

should we grudge them a little candle-light, 
when, alas ! they will so soon dwell in the 
outer darkness ? 

Job does not restrict this metaphor to the 
sons of evil, but uses it in reference to his 
own condition. Hear how he sighs (xxix. 2, 3) : 
" Oh that I were as in months past, as in the 
days when God preserved me ; when his 
candle shined upon my head ! " He had 
known prosperity, and that was gone ! He 
had enjoyed heavenly fellowship, and that 
had been obscured. The candle of the Lord 
is a candle indeed. When that brightness is 
reflected from our faces, we are as happy as 
the angels in heaven ; but when it is taken 
away, we sit in a darkness which may be felt. 
He who has once enjoyed fellowship with 
God will never again be happy without it. 
If we had remained in the blindness of nature, 
we should not have known the glory of divine 
love, nor should we have been in distress when 
a conscious sense of it is withdrawn ; but 
now that we are enlightened by divine grace, 
darkness brings woe to us. When we lose 
the candle of the Lord, we imitate Job in 
sighing for its return. 

David, who knew full well the brightness 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 55 

of that candle, and also knew the miss of it, 
jubilantly cries out in Psalm xviii. 28, 
" Thou wilt light my candle." The Scotch 
version well rhymes it: — 

" The Lord will light my candle so, 
That it shall shine full bright : 
The Lord my God will also make 
My darkness to be light" 

Believers shall not be left in the dark. If 
no servant comes to light our candle, the 
Lord himself will do it. What a mass of 
meaning can be packed away in one figurative 
expression ! Matthew Henry, without the 
least straining of the metaphor, reads the 
passage thus: u Thou wilt revive and com- 
fort my sorrowful spirit, and not leave me 
melancholy : thou wilt recover me out of my 
troubles, and restore me to peace and pros- 
perity : thou wilt make my honour bright, 
which is now eclipsed ; thou wilt guide my 
way, and make it plain before me, that I 
may avoid the snares laid for me ; thou wilt 
light my candle to work by, and give me an 
opportunity of serving thee and the interests 
of thy kingdom among men." 

Solomon spoke of a candle when he said, 
" The spirit of man is as the candle of the 



56 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



Lord, searching all the inward parts of the 

belly." Did he not refer to conscience? 

Did he not mean that conscience is in some 

respects a divine light—" the candle of the 

Lord " ? and in all respects a discovering 

light — searching all the inward parts ? Take 

care that you never trifle with this candle. 

A loss of light in the conscience means 

decrease of light for our whole manhood. 

I am afraid that conscience 

in many persons has become 

no better than an unkindled 

candle, not giving light, 

nor even making darkness 

visible. I have heard of a 

man who said, " Conscience! 

Conscience! I have plenty 

of conscience." " Yes", said 

one, " and it is as good as 

new, for I have never known 

you use it." In that case it 

was a candle unlighted, and 

the old rhyme has it : — 

" A candle that affords no light, 
What profits it by day or night ? " 

An enlightened conscience is greatly to be 
prized, and it should be kept free from 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 57 

everything which might mar its brightness. 

Milton says : — 

" He that has light within his own clear breast, 
May sit i' the centre and enjoy bright day." 

God grant that we may never do violence to 
our conscience even in the least degree * for 
this is to quench our own light ! 

Solomon mentions the candle in his graphic 
picture of the virtuous woman, who not only 
worked by day, but wrought far into the 
night. He says (Prov. xxxi. 18), " Her 
candle goeth not out by night. " Many 
would have their hours shortened as to work, 
and lengthened as to sleep ; but she did the 
very reverse. She lengthened her days by 
taking hours out of her nights. A wonderful 
example that woman was ! I recollect hear- 
ing, when I was a boy, a minister preach 
about her from this text, " Who can find a 
virtuous woman ? for her price is far above 
rubies." The opening of that memorable 
discourse was somewhat in this fashion : — 
" ' Who can find a virtuous woman ?' Why, 
anyone who chooses to look for her ; and the 
only reason why Solomon could not find her 
was because he looked in the wrong place. 
Virtuous women kept clear of a king who 



58 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

had such a multitude of wives. But ", said 
the preacher, " if Solomon were here now, 
and were made truly wise, he would not long 
ask — ' Who can find a virtuous woman ? ' He 
would join the church, and find himself at 
once among a band of holy women, whose 
adornment is a meek and quiet spirit. If he 
were permitted to look in upon the Dorcas 
meeting, he would see many of the sort 
of whom he once said, ' She stretcheth 
out her hand to the poor ; yea, she reacheth 
forth her hands to the needy.' If he 
would adjourn to the Sunday-school, he 
would there meet with others of whom 
he would say, 'She openeth her mouth with 
wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law 
of kindness. 7 We, who serve the Lord Jesus, 
meet many a time with virtuous women, of 
each of whom we could say with the wise 
king, ' Her price is far above rubies.' ' The 
preacher of whom I have spoken interested 
me by the remark, " Why ' above rubies ' t 
Why not above diamonds? My brethren, 
the diamond is but a pale and sickly stone, 
which needs the glare of candle-light or gas 
to set it off ; but the ruby is a ruddy, healthy 
gem, which is beautiful by daylight. Lovely 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 59 

is the woman whose face is fall of the glow 
of activity in domestic life. That is the kind 
of woman who makes the housewife in whom 
the heart of her husband safely trusteth." 
Whatever one may think of the correctness of 
the exposition, the sentiment of the preacher 
was sound and practical. 

In Scripture the candle is mentioned when 
the destruction of a city is described. " More- 
over I will take from them the voice of mirth, 
and the voice of gladness, the voice of the 
bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the 
sound of the millstones, and the light of the 
candle" (Jeremiah xxv. 10). When no 
longer there were days of joy — no festivals, 
no weddings — then was the city brought low ; 
but when the sound of the grinding of 
the meal by the millstone altogether ceased 
in the morning, and the light of the candle 
was no more to be seen in the evening, then 
was the city deserted, and left to be a 
desolation. If you passed a city on a hill, 
and saw no candle shining from any window, 
then you knew that the inhabitants had 
ceased. The description is as graphic as it is 
pictorial. The fate of the spiritual Babylon, 
or apostate Church, is set forth in the Book of 



60 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Revelation, in the most solemn and sweeping 
terms : " And a mighty angel took up a stone 
like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, 
saying, Thus with violence shall that great 
city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be 
found no more at all. And the voice of 
harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and 
trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in 
thee ; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft 
he be, shall be found any more in thee ; and 
the sound of a millstone shall be heard no 
more at all in thee ; and the light of a 
candle shall shine no more at all in thee " 
(Revelation xviii. 21 — 23). Who, that has 
read with care the story of the apostate 
church, can do other than rejoice with the 
holy apostles and prophets that God will 
thus deal with her ? 

The prophet Zephaniah, in his first chapter, 
at the twelfth verse, mentions candles in that 
memorable passage wherein he describes the 
overthrow of Jerusalem by the Babylonians : 
" I will search Jerusalem with candles." 
The same description might stand for the 
destruction of the city by the Romans ; for 
Josephus tells us that princes, and priests, 
and mighty men were dragged even out of 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 61 

the sewers 5 and pits, and caves, and tombs, 
in which they had hidden themselves from 
fear of death. The imagery of the prophet 
well describes the conduct of soldiers when 
sacking a city. They not only seize all that 
they can see at once, or with a slight search ; 
but, rightly judging that the people will have 
hidden their treasures, they ransack their 
darkest cellars and closets, and pry into their 
furniture ; and, that they may see the better, 
the}^ light many candles and look into every 
corner and cranny, so that nothing may 
escape them. Now, when God comes to 
search his church he will do it himself— " I 
will search Jerusalem " ; and he will do it 
as minutely as spoilers in the hour of sack. 
He will find out every hypocrite, " and 
punish the men that are settled on their 
lees ; that say in their heart, The Lord will 
not do good, neither will he do evil." Ah 
me! if the Lord thus examines our churches ; 
if he comes to close work with men's souls, 
and searches with candles to find out theii 
condition ; shall we be able to endure an 
investigation so thorough, so minute, so all- 
discovering ? 

When we reach the New Testament, we 



62 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

remember our Saviour's words : u Neither do 
men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, 
but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto 
all that are in the house": Mattbvw v. 15. 
Grace is meant to be seen : to conceal it is 
contrary to common sense. Our Lord also 
speaks of a high degree of grace in Luke 
xi. 36. "If thy whole body therefore be 
full of light, having no part dark, the whole 
shall be full of light, as when the bright 
shining of a candle doth give thee light." 
How blessed to have "no part dark"! To 
have "the whole full of light" ! This is no 
dim twinkling, but " the bright shining of a 
candle", or rather of " a lamp'', whereby all 
in the room are made glad. What a beautiful 
condition of heart ! But we ought all to 
possess it ; for darkness is a work of the devil, 
and all the devil's works our Lord Jesus has 
come to destroy. God grant that the whole 
of our being may be irradiated with the bright- 
ness of his grace ! Then we shall have nothing 
to conceal, and nothing around us will lie in 
darkness. Our houses will be lit up with 
glory, and the bells on the horses, and 
the vessels of our dwellings will reflect the 
brightness of our consecrated lives. Alas, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



63 



that so many who have a measure of divine 
knowledge and grace, yet have some part 
of their nature still in the darkness ! You 
cannot help noticing that their sanctincation 
is partial. Perhaps it will be the wiser 
course to keep our eyes at home, and pray 
the Lord to enlighten our darkness, that we 
may, ourselves, shine as lights in the world. 

Hemember, 
also, the remark- 
able parable of 
the woman who 
had lost her piece 
of money. The 
question is put 
in Luke xv. 8, 
" What woman 
having ten pieces 
of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light 
a candle, and sweep the house, and seek 
diligently till she find it? " In this way 
must we look for lost souls, with the light 
of the gospel and the besom of the law. 
You must be at some expense if you would 
find the lost! You must light a candle, 
and let it be burnt up. You must make a 
little dust, too ; for nothing worth doing will 




64 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

be accomplished without a stir. Yet dust^ 
—-making is not all. Certain people seem to 
think that you will find all the lost pieces of 
money by merely making dust enough and 
noise enough ; but they are wrong. There 
must be more light than dust. Nothing can 
be done without the light of the candle. 
Instruction must be given, as well as excite- 
ment created. A little dust is a good sign, for 
it shows that the lethargic order is being dis- 
turbed, and old things are passing away ; 
but, at the same time, we must not make so 
much dust that we cannot see by the light 
of our candle. Indeed, we must not be 
content either with the dust or the light ; we 
I may not rest till we spy out our lost treasure, 
and place it in safety. Use the candle more 
J than the broom. Be not negligent as to 
either ; but keep your eye open to find the 
money. 

There is even a connection between candles 
and heaven, though it is of a negative kind ; 
for there " They need no candle, neither 
light of the sun " : Revelation xxii. 5. Here 
on earth creature -comforts yield us their 
candle-light; but there the Creator himself 
will fill us with his own presence, and we 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. * 65 

shall no more need these temporal blessings 
than a man requires a candle at noon-day. 
How soon may we be privileged to know 
how bright is the place where "the Lord 
God giveth them light " ! Thus the Scripture 
is not without its "sermons in candles ", as 
I have shown you. 

One allusion I will venture to mention, 
though the word employed is " lamp." David 
says, " Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and 
a light unto my path " : Psalm cxix. 105. 
David drew his comparison from what is seen 
every night in an Oriental city. He who goes 
out into the street at night in Eastern towns 
is bound to carry a lantern with him. You 
would find it very necessary if you were 
there, if only because of the dogs who prowl 
about for their living. They are very fond 
of shin bones, and they do not like them any 
the less if they happen to be alive, with a 
little meat upon them. A light may keep 
them off Besides that, there are open gutters, 
and heaps of filth, and nobody knows the 
abominations of the unspeakable Turk and 
his cousins in the East. You must, therefore, 
when you go out at' night, carry a lantern, 
for your own protection ; and the law, also, 

5 



66 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




compels you to do so. If you are out with- 
out a lantern, the police put you down as 
an individual who is abroad with ill design. 

The very com- 
mon Ian tern, with 
which children 
are so pleased, 
is a fair speci- 
men of what are 
used at this day, 
and therefore it 
resembles what 
David used ; for 
tnmgs in the East undergo little or no change. 
The proper use of such a lantern was to guide 
the feet, and this is the use of the Word of 
God. Certain brethren hold it up so as to 
see the stars, hoping to find out what is 
going to happen next week, or next year. 
How great they are over seals and trumpets ! 
One admires the depth and the darkness of 
their research. We may leave them to their 
discoveries : time will show whether they are 
correct or not. 

Others hold the heavenly light where its 
only use would be to minister warmth and 
comfort to the heart : these we do not blame, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 67 

unless they forget other matters. David 
made a practical use of the sacred light : 
he held it where it would shine upon his 
way, and enable him to keep out of foul 
places, and walk in a clean path. The Bible 
is a blessing to us in many ways ; but he is 
wisest who makes it his " Every-day Book ", 
and rules his family life and his business 
life by its holy precepts. Read the pro- 
phecies, prize the promises, but fail not, by 
God's grace, to practise the precepts. 

Many people use their Bibles as lights to 
be hung up at a Chinese feast of lanterns, for 
amusement, or for show. Their theology is 
a brilliant advertisement of their informa- 
tion ; their Biblical studies make their con- 
versation attractive ; but bond fide practical 
godliness they fight shy of. They prefer 
the Book of Revelation to the Sermon on the 
Mount. Very general is this unpractical treat- 
ment of Holy Scripture. Have you not heard 
of the " Golden Rule " ? A wonderful precept 
is that Golden Rule, and I am sure you all 
admire it. I have been told, that one day 
the Golden Rule wandered out of church 
into the Stock Exchange, got its hat knocked 
over its eyes, and was led out by the beadle, 



68 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

who asked, "What could have induced you 
to come here ? What business have you out 
of church ? You are neither a bull nor a 
bear." The jobbers and brokers could not do 
their business with this precious Golden Rule 
prying about ; for its teaching did not allow 
latitude enough to either buyers or sellers. 
Perhaps I am mistaken. I am not sure 
that it was the Stock Exchange ; on second 
thoughts, it may have been the Coal Ex- 
change, or possibly Mark Lane. I am getting 
a little mixed. I wonder whether it was 
the Cattle Market, or Covent Garden, or 
Mincing Lane. Perhaps, after all, I am in 
error, and it was your shop. But this I do 
know, that the Golden Rule is always highly 
respected when it keeps itself to itself; but 
if it meddles with tradespeople, they say, 
" Business is business": to which I would 
reply, " And business has no business to be 
such business as it often is." The Golden 
Rule in business generally is, " Do others, 
or others will do you." But the Word of 
God speaks in nobler fashion. Scripture lays 
down by-laws which the most of men treat 
with respectful negligence : they have no ob- 
jection to the light and comfort of Scripture 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 69 

in sickness, sorrow, or death ; but they want 
it not in their everyday walks in the City. 
This is not as it should be. Use you the 
light of Grod every day and all the day. 

It is time to quit these Scriptural allusions, 
and come to the work of presenting emblems 
and illustrations. I will begin by borrowing. 
I dare say you have seen a little, square, podgy 
book, as broad as it is long ; very much like 
a smaller Bradshaw's Railway Gruide : I refer 
to Quarles* School of the Heart. If ever 
you have been shut up in a remote farmhouse, 
where there was nothing to read except the 
almanack for the year 1843, when you had 
read that through three times, and had picked 
over Buchan's Family Medicine, you were 
driven at last to this quaint old book of uncouth 
cuts and rhymes. It is an immortal work, 
and, despite the critics, it has true poetry in 
it, though its metaphors are often grotesque 
and strained. Towards the end you find 
certain emblems made from candles ; and I 
have put seven of them together to set forth 
the " Seven Ages of Man." This first candle, 
long and slender, is the child, which, if spared, 
has quite a length of light and life before it. 



70 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




When newly lighted the flame is easily blown 
out, but there are large possibilities of con- 
tinuance. So also at twenty we anticipate 
long years of life, and yet it may end in one 
short hour. The other candles show us as 
thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years of 
age. Our figure goes no further, " for if 
by reason of strength they be fourscore years, 
yet is their strength labour and sorrow." 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



71 



Look at this shining emblem, and judge each 
one his own position as to his remainder of life. 
Mark how little is left to some of yon ! Pray 
God that you may use all that remains to the 
praise of God. I asked concerning a sick 
friend the other day, and the answer I received 
was a shake of the head, and the remark, " I 
am sorry to say, he cannot last much longer. 
It is only a matter of time : his life hangs on 
a thread." I answ r ered, ll And that is exactly 
the case with me." Is it not true of every 
one of us that w t o are mortal ? and that our 
departure is only a matter of time ? Our life 
is ended as easily as a candle is blown out. 

Here is a fac- 
simile of Quarles 
quaint wood-cut, 
whereby he tried 
to set forth the 
eagerness of 
Death to quench 
the light of life, 
and the way in 
which Time, for 
a season, holds 
back the hand of 
the last enemy. 




72 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Quarles has written many books, and he 
frequently brings in candle-light. Having 
introduced him, I leave you to make his 
further acquaintance as your taste directs. 

Robert Farlie has given us some capital 
emblems, and there is a reproduction of them 
in a fine volume in which his work is inter- 
mingled with that of Jacob Calts. It was 
published as a Christmas book by Longmans. 

Gotthold has quite a series of Candle 
emblems. Here is the first one : — 

"Gotthold, wishing to seal a letter, called 
for a lighted candle. The maid obeyed his 
orders ; but proceeding too hastily, the flame, 
which had not yet gathered sufficient strength, 
went out. Here, said Gotthold, we have that 
which may well remind us of the- gentleness 
and moderation to be observed in our com- 
portment towards weak and erring brethren. 
Had this candle, when first lighted, been 
carried slowly, and shaded by the hand from 
the air, it would not have been extinguished, 
but would soon have burned with vigour. 
In like manner, many a weak brother might 
be set right, if we only came to his help in 
the right way, and with kindly advice. It 
is not by violent strokes that you reduce the 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 73 

dislocated limb. Christ himself does not 
quench the smoking flax, but blows upon it 
with the gentle breath of the blessed words 
that proceed out of his mouth (Luke iv. 22) ; 
and this was the reason why disconsolate 
sinners flocked around, and pressed upon him, 
to hear what he said. Luke v. 1 ; xv. 1." 

But you will soon be weary of me if I do 
not bring to an end this first part of my 
" Sermons in Candles." I will close with a 
short meditation, from quaint Bishop Hall, 
and & rhyme from Master John Bunyan. 
The Bishop, whose wording I have a little 
altered, has a Contemplation under the 
heading of — 

"On Occasion of the Lights brought in." 

" Well as we love the light, we are wont to 
salute it, at its first coming in, with winking 
or closed eyes ; as not abiding to see that 
without which we cannot see. All sudden 
changes, though for the better, have a kind of 
trouble attending them. By how much more 
excellent any object is, by so much more 
is our weak sense mis-affected in the first 
apprehending of it. 



74 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



" Lord, if thou shouldest manifest thy 
glorious presence to us here, we should be 
confounded at the sight of it ? How wisely, 
how mercifully hast thou reserved that for 
our glorified estate ; where no infirmity shall 
dazzle our eyes ; where perfect righteousness 
shall give us perfect boldness both of sight 
and fruition ! " 

Master Bunyan gives us a world of thought 
in the doggerel rhyme with which I end this 
first lesson. 

MEDITATIONS UPON" A CANDLE. 



Man's like a candle in a candlestick, 
Made up of tallow and a little wick ; 
And as the candle is before 'tis lighted, 
Just such be they who are in sin benighted. 
Nor can a man his soul with grace inspire, 
More than can candles set themselves on fire. 
Candles receive their light from what they are not ; 
Men, grace from Him, for whom at first they care not. 

We manage candles when they take the fire ; 
God ruleth men, when grace doth them inspire. 
As biggest candles give the better light, 
So grace on biggest sinners shines most bright. 
The candle shines to make another see ; 
A saint unto his neighbour light should be. 
The blinking candle we do much despise ; 
Saints dim of light are high in no man's eyes. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 75 



Again, though it may seem to some a riddle, 
We used to light our candle at the middle. 
True, light doth at the candle's end appear, 
And grace the heart first reaches by the ear ; 
But 'tis the wick the fire doth kindle on. 
As 'tis the heart that grace first works upon. 
Thus both do fasten upon what's the main, 
And so their life and vigour do maintain. 

As candles in the wind are apt to flare, 
So Christians in a tempest to despair. 
We see the flame with smoke attended is ; 
And in our holy lives there's much amiss. 
Sometimes a thief will candle-light annoy : 
And lusts do seek our graces to destroy. 
What brackish is will make a candle sputter ; 
'Twixt sin and grace there's oft a heavy clutter. 
Sometimes the light burns dim, 'cause of the snuff, 
And sometimes 'tis extinguish' d with a puff : 
But watchfulness preventeth both these evils, 
Keeps candles light, and grace in spite of devils. 
But let not snuffs nor puffs make us to doubt ; 
Our candle may be lighted, though puff'd out. 

The candle in the night doth all excel, 

Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars then shine so well : 

So is the Christian in our hemisphere, 

Whose light shows others how their course to steer. 

When candles are put out all's in confusion ; 

Where Christians are not, devils make intrusion. 

They then are happy who such candles have : 

All others dwell in darkness and the grave. 



76 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



But candles that do blink within the socket, 
And saints whose eyes are always in their pocket, 
Are much alike ; such candles make us fumble ; 
And at such saints, good men and bad do stumble. 
Good candles don't offend, except sore eyes, 
Nor hurt, unless it be the silly flies. 
How good are shining candles in the night ! 
How sweet is holy living for delight ! 

But let us draw towards the candle's end. 
The fire, you see, doth wick and tallow spend ; 
So wastes man's life, until his glass is run, 
And so the candle and the man are done. 
The man now lays him down upon his bed ; 
The wick yields up its fire, and so is dead. 
The candle now extinct is, but the man 
By grace mounts up to glory, there to stand. 




^HM IKS! 


l 


HRth 




Sermons in 
©antries* 



Lecture No. 2. 

AM afraid the science of 
emblems does not flourish 
so well among us as it did 
in a former age, when 
constituted an important 
branch of learning. You 
might find a rare field of recrea- 
tive study in Emblem literature. 
So many have tried it that certain 
of the older emblem-books have 
become too expensive for the ordinary reader 
to purchase. There has been a run upon 
them, and this has raised the price beyond 
their intrinsic value. 



78 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



In almost every collection of emblems, I 
have found the candle, and perhaps most 
frequently of all, the candle and the fly. I 
am not cruel enough to wish to give you an 
actual example of the way in which flies, 
moths, and other insects are glamoured 
with the glare of a candle ; but I may give 
you the facsimile of an old cut from Giles 
Qorrozetfs Hecatomgraphie, a French work, 
dated 1540. Under the motto, u War is 
sweet only to the inexperienced^ , he gives, in 

illustration, a num- 
ber 



of moths or 
butterflies flutter- 
ing toward a candle: 
said candle and 
moths being of 
gigantic size if 
compared with the room. Attached to the 
wood-cuts are verses which signify that those 
alone seek the battle-field who know not its 
great dangers. This reminds me that the good 
Earl of Shaftesbury told me that when he 
was Lord Ashley, he once rode with the Duke 
of Wellington through the lovely villages of 
Berkshire, and for half-an-hour the warrior 
was silent. When at length he spoke, he 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 79 

said, " I dare say you wonder what has 
made me so quiet. I was thinking of the 
havoc which war would make of all this peace 
and beauty. If war should ever come here, 
it might be my duty to burn and destroy all 
these happy homes. Whether there follow 
upon it defeat or victory, war is a great 
calamity." The great soldier spoke the truth. 
May those nations which delight in war rest 
content with former burnings of their wings, 
and let the flame alone. 

Others have used the same emblem as a 
warning against the indulgence of sinful 
passions. The motto is, Brevis et damnosa 
voluptas a short but ruinous pleasure." " For 
one pleasure a thousand pains." The sin 
promised to enlighten the eyes, but it burned 
into the very soul. Full often when we 
hear of young people ruined by unbridled 
appetites, we are apt to say with the world's 
great poet : — 

" Thus hath the candle singed the moth." 

Error has the same effect on certain restless 
minds. No sooner is a new theory started, 
than thev make a dash for it : and though it 
costs them comfort, fellowship, and holiness, 
they fly at it again. " O foolish Galatians, 



80 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



who hath bewitched you ? " The fascination 
of novelty appears to be irresistible, when 
minds are weak and conceited. 




Here is a picture of 
a candle. In artistic 
circles the drawing of 
an object may cost far 
more than the object 
itself. Did not the 
Shah of Persia once 
ask the price of the 
painting of a donkey, 
and, when he heard 
the amazing demand, he calculated how 
many real asses could have been purchased 
with the money. No doubt a well-painted 
picture of a candle would cost as much as 
would light us for many a month; and yet it 
would never yield to our necessity a single 
beam of light. So, the resemblance of true 
godliness costs a man far more care and 
trouble than the genuine article would 
involve, and yet it is nothing after all. One 
cannot light himself to bed by the picture 
of a candle, neither can he find comfort in 
the hour of death by the imitation of religion. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 81 

There must be reality, and that reality 
involves flame and light : in our case a flame 
and light which none but God can give. If 
there be nothing of heavenly fire and spiritual 
truth about our piety, our profession is vain. 
The great distinction between living grace 
and its imitation can be seen by all spiritual 
minds. We are overdone with portraits, but 
men are by no means plentiful. We have as 
many paintings of candles as the church-walls 
will hold ; but we have few real lamps, or 
else this world would not remain so dark as 
it now is. Those candles which are not 
consumed by their own flame are giving no 
light, and those persons who are themselves 
unaffected in heart and life by their religion, 
may fear that they are mocking themselves 
with the mere appearance of sacred things. 
You may sit a long time in front of a painted 
fire before you will be warmed, and you may 
Long maintain formal religion, and yet never 
derive comfort from it. To look for a lost 
ring in a dark cellar by the help of the 
picture of a candle, is not more unreasonable 
than to look for rest of heart in a godliness 
which is a mere pretence. 

Our third emblem is not a candle, but a 



82 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



case for candles, a casket for those jewels of 
light. Look well at this curiosity, ye dwellers 
in cities ; for I do not suppose that any of you 
have such a piece of furniture in your houses. 




It is a candle-box, well-fashioned and neatly 
japa-nned. Here at the back are two plates 
with holes in them by which to hang up the 
box against the wall. It closes very neatly, 
opens very readily, and keeps its con- 
tents out of harm's way. I can assure you 
that I have within it a number of the very 
best candles, from the most notable makers. 
Wax, stearine, palmatine, and so forth : there 
could not be a handsomer assortment than I 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 83 

now exhibit to you. Let no one despise this 
display: here we have capacity, elegance, 
preparation, and plenty of each. But suppose 
that we were in this room without the gas, 
and I were simply to exhibit the candle- box 
and its contents, and say, "Here is brilliance! 
You need no electric lighting : this box 
abundantly suffices for the enlightenment 
of this large assembly ! " You would reply, 
" But we see none the better for your boasted 
illumination. The candles are shut up in 
their box, and yield no single beam of light." 
Herein detect a resemblance to many a 
church. We could readily find communities 
of Christian people, who are shut up to them- 
selves, and are without the living fire of the 
Spirit of God. What is the good of them ? 

This is a very respectable candle-box ; is 
it not ? It could hardly be more respect- 
able. Even so, yonder is a highly respectable 
congregation ! Very refined and select ! The 
minister is a " man of hisdi culture and ad- 
vanced thought." He can confound a text of 
Scripture with any living man. He attracted 
at least five horses to his place of preaching 
last Sunday. They say it takes a great deal of 
ability to draw a horse to church ! As for his 



84 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

hearers, they are all the cream of the cream. 
Don't you know that the doctor, and the 
brewer, and the lawyer, and the auctioneer all 
attend that most honoured sanctuary ? "What 
with an M.D., and a D.D., and an E.R.S., 
two wealthy dowagers, a Colonel, a County- 
Council-man, and a Professor, it is worth 
while for a fellow to go to that chapel — I 
beg pardon — church, for the sake of the social 
distinction which it will bestow upon him. 
The people are so very respectable that they 
do not know one another, and never think of 
shaking hands. They are all so very select, 
that they float about in distinguished isolation, 
like so many icebergs in the Atlantic. The 
families walk up the aisles with the most 
becoming dignity, and they walk down the 
aisles with the most proper decorum. They 
can do without warmth, brotherly love, sym- 
pathy, and co-operation ; for their eminent 
" respectability " suffices for every need. Of 
course, they can do nothing more ; for it costs 
them all their time, talent, thought, and spare 
cash to maintain their superior respectability. 
Like the gentleman with his well-brushed 
hat, no wonder that they look so superior, 
for they give their whole minds to it. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 85 



One asked a member of a certain respect- 
able church whether he taught in a Ragged 
School, and iveally he could hardly answer 
the fellow. The superior person champed the 
word " Ragged School " as a donkey might 
a roll of oakum. Another, a portly deacon, 
was asked whether he would join in holding 
an open-air service ; but lie looked the intruder 
through and through as if he would like to 
open him. None of the ladies and gentlemen 
help the Temperance work, for they are 
too respectable to go in with vulgar water- 
drinkers; neither do they visit the lodging- 
houses, for that would be too disreputable for 
their royal highnesses. All these make up an 
eminently respectable community; but why 
they are respected, this deponent sayeth not. 

Here, take away this candle-box ! I want 
no more of it or its contents, for it gives no 
jot of light ! That is what will happen to 
very respectable churches which do no work 
for God or man : they will be put away, and 
even their candlestick will be taken out of 
its place. If they do not mend their ways, 
not a few of our dissenting churches will die 
out, and leave nothing behind them but a 
name to laugh at. A church which does 



86 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



nothing for those around it, mocks the need 
of men, leaves the world in darkness, and 
grieves the Lord who designed his people to 
be the lights of the world. 

As in a community, so with a single person ; 
grace is essential to usefulness. All the candles 
in that box remain useless till the wick is 
lighted with a touch of fire ; and this lone 

candle is equally so. 
See, T bring another 
candle in contact 
with it. They are 
tete-a-tete, or wick- 
ii-wick, but the first 
las no influence 
upon the second. 
A thousand such in- 
terviews will pro- 
duce no result. If there were a living flame 
here, you could soon set not only this one 
candle shining, but as many as you chose to 
bring ; but without it nothing can be done. 
.No man can communicate what he has not 
got: you cannot hope to save your fellow-man 
till you know the salvation of God for your- 
self. To be a preacher or teacher before one 
has received the divine life, is as foolish as for 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



87 




a candle to set up for a 

lighter of others before 

it has been lighted itself. 

How different the result 

when the living flame is 

there ! See how the one 

sets the other on a blaze *- 

at once ! lIlR 

I see before me quite an array of candles. 
Variety is charming, and number is cheering. 
The more the merrier, and especially of such 
reputable and notable light-givers as these. 




AM 



We may consider that we are having quite 



88 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

an illumination. With so many luminaries 
we need hardly regret the set of sun. But is 
it so ? I, for one, am none the better for 
these promising lights ; are you ? I put on my 
spectacles. But there is no improvement. I 
can see nothing ; and yet there are candles 
enough and to spare! There is no mystery 
about it — the candles are not lighted ; and 
until they are lighted they cannot remove 
our darkness. Grace is needed to make gifts 
available for the service of God. 

Let us look more closely into our collec- 
tion of lights. Here is one which I should 
suppose to be an archbishop at the least. 
This specimen is a Doctor of Divinity. 
These are gentry, and these are merchants, 
and those are " cultured" individuals; but 
without the light from on high they are 
all equally unserviceable. A poor converted 
lad in a workshop will be of more spiritual 
use than a parliament of unregenerate men- 
I introduce to you a lighted rushlight, and 
there is more to be seen by this ignoble 
luminary than by all the rest. Little ability, 
set on fire by the life of God, may produce 
greater results than ten talents without the 
divine power. ' ' A living dog is better than 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



89 



a dead lion" : a zealous but illiterate Christian 
may be worth twenty lifeless philosophers. 

Herein is great 
encouragement, dear 
friends, that if you 
once get a light, it 
will spread from one 
to another without 
end. This one lighted 
candle would suffice 
to set a hundred can- 
dles shining. It may 
light a much finer 
candle than itself. 
Fire is one of those 
things for which 
there is no account- 
ing as to what may come of it. Its spread 
is not to be measured even by leagues when 
it once gets firm hold, and the wind drives 
it on. Piety in a cottage may enlighten a 
nation. If the church of God were reduced 
to one person, it might, within an incredibly 
short time, become a great multitude. 

There is a true apostolical succession in the 
kingdom of grace. Office has the. pretence of 
it, but grace gives the reality. At Mr. Jay's 




90 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Jubilee, Timothy East, of Birmingham, told 
how, by the youthful ministry of William 
Jay, a thoughtless youth was converted and 
became a minister. Under the preaching of 
that man, Timothy East himself was led to 
repentance ; and then by a sermon from 
Timothy East, John Williams, who became 
the martyr of Erromanga and the apostle of 
the South Sea Islands, was savingly impressed. 
See how the light goes from Jay to another, 
from that other to East, from East to Williams, 
and from Williams to the savages of the 
Southern Seas ! 

A family tree of an equally interesting 
character has been traced with regard to books 
as surely as with living witnesses for God. A 
Puritan tract, old and torn, was lent by a poor 
man to Baxter's father. It was called Bunny's 
Resolutions. Through reading this little book, 
Richard Baxter, afterwards the great preacher 
of Kidderminster, received a real change of 
heart. Baxter wrote The Saint's ^Ever- 
lasting Rest, which was blessed to the con- 
version of Doddridge. He wrote The Rise 
and Progress, which was the means of the 
conversion of Legh Richmond, and he wrote 
his Dairyman's Daughter, which has been 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 91 

translated into more than fifty languages, 
and has led to the conversion of thousands 
of souls. How many of these converted ones 
have in their turn written books and tracts 
which have charmed others to Jesus, eternity 
alone will reveal. We can never see the 
issues of our acts. We may strike a match, 
and from that little flame a street may be 
lighted. Give a light to your next door 
neighbour, and you may be taking the nearest 
way to instruct the twentieth century, or to 
send the gospel to Chinese Tartary, or to 
overthrow the popular science fetish of the 
hour. A spark from your kitchen candle 
may, in its natural progression from one to 
another, light the last generation of men ; so 
the word of the hour may be the light of the 
age, by which men may come in multitudes to 
see their Saviour and Lord. Let thy light 
shine, and what will come of it thou shalt 
see hereafter. 

Coming one Thursday in the late autumn 
from an engagement beyond Dulwich, my 
way lay up to the top of the Heme Hill 
ridge. I came along the level out of which 
rises the steep hill I had to ascend. While 
I was on the lower ground, riding in 



92 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

a hansom cab, I saw a light before me, 
and when I came near the hill, I marked that 
light gradually go up the hill, leaving a train 
of stars behind it. This line of new-born 
stars remained in the form of one lamp, and 
then another, and another. It reached from 
the foot of the hill to its summit. I did not 
see the lamplighter. I do not know his 
name, nor his age, nor his residence ; but I 
saw the lights which he had kindled, and 
these remained when he himself had gone his 
way. As I rode along I thought to myself, 
" How earnestly do I wish that my life may 
be spent in lighting one soul after another with 
the sacred flame of eternal life ! I would 
myself be as much as possible unseen while 
at my work, and would vanish into the eternal 
brilliance above when my work is done." 
Will you, my brother, begin to light up some 
soul to-night ? Speak of Jesus to some person 
who knows him not. Who can tell, but you 
may save a soul from death ? Then carry 
the flame to another, and to another. Mark 
the years of your life by your continual 
diligence in spreading " the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
of Jesus Christ." 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



93 





^v 



The taper which I hold in my hand is 
in itself a poor thing as an illuminator, but 
it has created quite a splendour in the room 
by the light which it has communicated 
to others. Andrew was not a very great 
personage, but he called his brother Peter, 
and led him to Jesus, and Peter was a host 
in himself. Never mind how small a taper 
you may be; burn on, shine at your best, 
and God bless you. You may lead on to 
grand results despite your feebleness. He 
that called Dr. John Owen is forgotten: I 
might almost say was never known : he was a 
small taper — but what a candle he lighted ! 



94 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Those holy women who talked together as 
they sat in the sun at Bedford were a blessing 
to John Bunyan ; but we know not the 
name of even one of them. Everywhere the 
hidden ones are used of the Lord as the 
means of lighting up those who shine as stars 
in the churches. 

In the service of God we find the greatest 
expansion of our being. It makes the dead 
man speak, and it also makes a single living 
man spread himself over a province. Our 
forefathers were fond of riddles. I cannot 
say that they were very witty ones, but there 
was solidity in them. Here is one — What is 
that of which twenty could be put into a 
tankard, and yet one would fill a barn ? 
Twenty candles unlighted would scarce fill a 
jug; but one when it is lighted will bene- 
ficially fill a barn with light, or viciously 
fill it with fire and smoke. A man, what is 
he ? A man of Grod, what is he not ? Our 
influence may enlighten the world and shine 
far down the ages, if the Holy Spirit's fire 
shall kindle us. 

Here is a candle which has never given 
any light yet, and never will as it now is. 
Hear its reason for not giving light ! It is 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



95 



so unfortunate that it cannot find a proper 




candlestick, in which to stand upright and 
fulfil the purpose for which it was made. 
Let us try to accommodate it. Here is a fine 
church candlestick, and we set our candle in 
the socket. Does it shine? No. Shall we try 
a lower place ? It does not shine any better. 
We will put this candle in the most enviable 
position — in this real silver candlestick, of 
the most elaborate workmanship. It does not 
shine one whit the more. Neither high nor low 
places will make a man what he is not. 

I know persons who cannot get on any- 
where ; but, according to their own belief, 



96 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

the fault is not in themselves, but in their 
surroundings. I could sketch you a brother 
who is unable to do any good because all 
the churches are so faulty. He was once 
with us, but he came to know us too well, 
and grew disgusted with our dogmatism and 
want of taste. He went to the Independents 
who have so much more culture, breadth, 
and liberality. He grew weary of what he 
called "cold dignity.'' He wanted more 
fire, and therefore favoured the Methodists 
with his patronage. Alas! he did not 
find them the flaming zealots he had sup- 
posed them to be : he very soon outgrew 
both them and their doctrines, and joined 
our most excellent friends, the Presby- 
terians. These proved to be by far too high 
and dry for him, and he became rather sweet 
upon the Swedenborgians, and would have 
joined them had not his wife led him among 
the Episcopalians. Here he might have 
enjoyed the otium cum dignitate ; have taken 
it easy with admirable propriety ; and have 
even grown into a churchwarden ; but he 
was not content ; and before long I heard that 
he was an Exclusive Brother ! There I leave 
him, hoping that he may be better in his 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 97 

new line than he has ever been in the old 
ones. " The course of nature could no 
further go " : if he has not fallen among a 
loving, united people now, where will he 
find them ? Yet I expect, that as Adam left 
Paradise, so will he ultimately fall from his 
high estate. He reminds me of a very good 
man who changed his religious views so 
often, that I once asked him, "What are 
you now? r He told me, and I went on 
my way ; but when I met him next, and 
made the same inquiry, he was something else. 
At our next meeting my reverend brother 
was grieved because I said to him the third 
time, "What are you now?" He reproved 
me for it ; but when I somewhat impenitently 
repeated the query, and pressed it home, I 
found that he really had entered another 
denomination since I had last seen him. 
What a pity that the churches should be so 
bad, that when a man has gone the complete 
round he finds none which quite comes up to 
his mark! If some of these brethren go on 
their way to heaven alone, they will increase 
the heaven below of those who are not forced 
to put up with them. 

The same illustration suggests to me to 

7 



98 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

ask you whether you know the young man 
who cannot serve God as an apprentice, but 
is going to do wonders when he is out of his 
time? Yes, he only wants to be put into 
another candlestick. So he thinks: but we 
know better. When he is out of his time, 
and has become a journeyman, he will post- 
pone his grand plans of usefulness till he 
has started as a master on his own account. 
Alas ! when he is a master, he will wait till he 
has made money and can retire from business. 
So, you see, the candle does not shine, but it 
imputes its failure to the candlesticks ! The 
candlesticks are not to be blamed. 

Poor Dick Miss-the-Mark believes that he 
ought to have been Oliver Cromwell ; but as 
that character is hardly in season in this year 
of grace, Richard is unable to be Cromwell, 
and therefore he is not himself at all. That 
wart over the eye, and other Cromwellian 
distinctions, are a dead loss in his case. He 
cannot develop his genius for want of a 
King Charles and a Prince Rupert. The 
proper candlestick is not forthcoming, and so 
this fine candle cannot shine. 

This is a very simple affair — Field's Self- 
fitting Candle ; but it is very handy. You see, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 99 

owing to the shape of its lower end, 
the candle will fit into any candlestick, 
whether it be large or small. A man 
of this sort makes himself useful any- 
where. In poverty he is content ; in 
wealth he is humble. Put him in a 
yillage, and he instructs the ignorant ; 
place him in a city, he seeks the fallen. 
If he can preach, he will do so ; and 
if that is beyond his capacity, he will 
teach in the Sabbath-school. Like 
the holy missionary Brainerd, if he cannot 
convert a tribe, he will, even on his dying bed, 
be willing to teach a poor child his letters. 
It is a great thing not only to be able to fit 
in to all kinds of work, but to cope with all 
sorts of people. The power of adaptation to 
high and low, learned and ignorant, sad and 
frivolous, is no mean gift. If, like Nelson, 
we can lay our vessel side by side with the 
enemy, and come to close quarters without 
delay, we shall do considerable execution. 
Commend me to the man who can avail 
himself of any conversation, and an}? topic, 
to drive home saving truth upon the con- 
science and heart. He who can ride a well- 
trained horse, properly saddled, does well; 



100 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

but the fellow who can leap upon the wild 
horse of the prairie, and ride him bare-backed, 
is a genius indeed. " All things to all men ", 
rightly interpreted, is a motto worthy of the 
great apostle of the Gentiles, and of all who, 
like him, would win souls for Jesus. 

It is a pity when a man is too big for his 
position — as some candles are too big to fit 
in certain candlesticks. Don't I know some 
Jacks-in-office who are a world too great to 
be of the slightest use to anybody ? Don't 
ask them a question unless you desire to be 
eaten up alive. On the other hand, it is not 
pretty to see a candle with paper round it 
to keep it in its place ; nor is it nice to see 
a little man padded out to make him fill up 
an important office. Some men in prominent 
positions are like the small boy on the high 
horse ; they need a deal of holding on. Be 
fit for your office, or find one for which you 
are fit. It is not a very great invention to 
make a candle self-fitting, but the result is 
very pleasant. Though the expression, "the 
right man in the right place ", is said to be a 
tautology, I like it, and I like best of all to 
see it in actual life. Try to fit yourself to 
whatever comes in your way. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



101 



~" Hearty service, rendered from pure motives, - 
is acceptable to God, even when persons of 
education and taste 'have just cause to find 
fault with its imperfections. If we cannot 
bear witness for the gospel in grammatical 
language, we may be thankful that we can 
do it at all, and we may be encouraged by 
the unquestionable fact that Grod blesses the 
most unpolished utterances. When you go 

to do a bit of car- 
pentering in the shed, 
and need a light, you 
are sometimes on the 
look-out for the means 
of setting up your bit 
of candle in a handy 
way. Here is the 
great invention in 
which your researches 
usually end. You see 
I have stuck a candle 
into a ginger-beer 
bottle, and the light 
which comes from it 
as if I had a fine 
Here is a popular 




is quite as clear 
plated candlestick, 
implement, and it is both handy and cheap. 



102 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Who would find any fault with it if he 
were in the dark, and wanted to find 
something in a hurry ? If you have no fitter 
candlestick, a ginger-beer bottle does mightily 
well. How often our Lord has used men of 
scanty education, or of none at all ! How 
useful he has made the things which are 
despised ! Yet, at the same time, if it were 
left to me to make my choice as to how I 
would have my candle set up, I should not 
object to have it in a more presentable stand. 
I would not quarrel even if the candle given 
to me to go to bed with were in a silver can- 
dlestick. For use I would sooner have a 
ginger-beer bottle with a bright candle in it 
than a plated candlestick with a dead candle 
in it which I could not light. Who would object 
to be rid of the guttering and the hot dropping 
tallow, and to handle a concern which would 
not dirty his hands ? A thing of beauty and oi 
brightness is a joy for ever. Grace shines none 
the less because the person and his speech 
are graceful. The world, with its Board 
Schools, is getting more and more educated, 
and the rage for ginger-beer-bottle lights is 
not so great as it was. We have now passed 
beyond the age in which vulgarity and power 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 103 

were supposed to be nearly related. As there 
is no sin, that I know of, in grammatical 
language and good taste, I hope we shall 
never set a fictitious value upon coarse- 
ness, nor go out of our way to marry 
godliness with slang. Our Lord and his 
cause should be served with our best. Even 
our best is not of itself worthy of his glory ; 
but at least let us not give to him the offal 
and the refuse of human speech. Young man, 
blaze away ; but you need not be coarse. 
Bring us a light, but use a decent candlestick 
if you can. 

Some excellent persons have very little 
talent indeed. It is not merely that there is 
a want of education, but there is a want of 
capacity. Now, when that happens to be the 
case, my next illustration may be a serviceable 
hint. On this board we have fixed a number 
of very small candles; and as they are all well 
alight, the result is by no means unsatisfactorv. 
As a company of illuminators they make a 
pleasant and notable shining, and I note that 
the children present are greatly pleased with 
their brightness. Let us observe how a number 
of good little people, well lighted by grace, 



104 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




can, by combination, really give out a great 
deal more illumination than far greater 
persons who shine alone. If one of you can- 
not do much in a place by yourself, look up 
other friends, start a Sunday-school, and all 
of you work together. You may do great 
things by earnest unity. Form a little army 
for preaching in the street. Band together to 
visit from house to house. tScatter tracts over 
the whole area by concerted action. Unity is 
light. Even children, youths, and maidens 
may make a great blaze by working together 
in the holy cause. But you must each one of 
you shine your quota, and no one must try to 
save his candle, and take things easy. All at 
it, and always at it, and you will not labour in 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 105 

vain. Yonder great ecclesiastical candle has 
never given a tenth of the light of these little 
instruments ; nor would he, I fear, if I were 
now to set him burning. The unanimous 
services of the lesser members of our churches 
might suffice to light up our country, and the 
world itself, by the blessing of God. 

Still, if we had an equal number of larger 
candles, we should have a brighter blaze. 
How often have I wished that men of great 
parts, position, and wealth, were brought into 
the service of our Lord ! Perhaps we do not 
pray sufficiently for them ; or possibly, if we 
had them, we might place too much reliance 
upon them. Yet the soul of a gentleman of 
influence is as precious as that of a poor man ; 
and we should know no difference of grades 
in our prayers. If any among my audience 
are endowed with ten talents, they have ten 
good reasons for yielding themselves to the 
service of God. How can they do better 
with themselves than by serving the purpose 
of their Creation and Redemption ! May 
almighty grace bring in some who will be 
great lights in this dark age ! We need men 
fitted to be leaders ; may the Lord send 
them soon ! 



106 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



This candle hanging on the wall, all mouldy 

and perishing, may 
serve as a striking 
likeness of those who 
have done nothing for 
their God, or for their 
fellow- men. It is bet- 
ter to be consumed in 
shining than to perish 
ignominiously in do- 




ing notning. 



nothing. I need 
scarcely quote the old 
proverb, . " It is better 
to wear out than to 
rust out." Idleness is a destroyer. Eor every 
evil brought upon us by excessive labour, ten 
will come to us by laziness. Our accidents 
happen in our holidays. When the pot is not 
boiling the flies will come to it. Mice will not 

nibble a light- 
ed candle; but 
when the fire 
is gone, they 
find tallow a 
rather tooth- 
some article. 
Who cares to 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



107 



be eaten by mice ? Who wishes to die of the 
miserables ? Who would like to be eaten up 
with whims, or nibbled away by crotchets ? 
If we have no such desire, let us accept that 
sacred fire which will cause us to yield up our 
whole being to the hallowed purpose of light- 
giving. For this we are kept in this dark 
world. We must be burning and shining 
lights, or we miss our vocation. Truly, he that 
saves his life loses it, and only he who spends 
his life for God shall find it unto life eternal. 
Have you ever heard of a person who, in 
real earnest, did the very foolish thing which 
I am attempting in pretence ! I have a candle 
here, and I want to light it. What shall I do ? 




108 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Before me I see a candlo burning very 
brightly, and I will take a light from it for 
this other candle. I have not succeeded. 
How is it that I have altogether failed ? I 
am of a very persevering turn of mind ; I 
will give it a fair trial. I cannot succeed 
in lighting my candle, and you are all laugh- 
ing at me, and you whisper that I must be 
over-much stupid to try to light a candle 
while an extinguisher is upon it. I subside. 
Do you not think that very many persons 
go with an extinguisher on to hear a minister 
preach ? Listen to yonder young lady : — 
u Well, I will go to hear hirn, Mary Anne, 
because you press me, but I am sure I shall 
not like him.' 7 Is she not very like a candle 
covered with an extinguisher ? Why our 
nameless friend does not like the preacher 
she has not told us ; but probably her pre- 
judice will be the more intense in propor- 
tion as she is unable to give a reason for it. 
Prejudice is a blind and deaf judge, who 
decides a case before lie has seen or heard 
the evidence. i i Hang them first, and try them 
afterwards," is one of his sage observations. 
Remember the old lines about unreasonable 
dislikes : — 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 109 

"I do not like you, Or. Fell, 

The reason why I cannot tell ; 

But this I know, and know full well, 

I do not like you, Dr. Fell." 
Just so. "That is a very effective extinguisher. 
Our young lady friend showed the preju- 
dice of ignorance, but there is such a thing 
as the prejudice of learning, and this is a 
very effectual extinguisher. Dr. Taylor, of 
Norwich, once said that he had read the 
Bible through — I think it was ten times — 
and he could not anywhere find the Deity 
of Christ in it. Honest John Newton observed, 
" Yes, and if I were to try ten times to light 
a candle with an extinguisher on it, I should 
not succeed." Once make up your mind to 
refuse a doctrine or a command, and you 
will not see it where God himself has written 
it as with a sunbeam. Kick against a truth, 
and the arguments for it will seem to have 
no existence. Let prejudice of any sort wholly 
cover the candle of your mind, and, whatever 
you do, there is no likelihood of your re- 
ceiving the light. There are none so deaf as 
those who will not hear. The country people 
say that " some are like the hogs in harvest, 
that can hear and won't." Of course, hogs 
are deaf when they are called out of a field 



110 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

where there is plenty to eat ; and of course 
sinners are deaf when we bid them quit the 
pleasures of sin. This prejudice makes men 
totally blind. How can we perceive anything 
lovable where we have resolved to hate ? How 
can we see even the sun itself when a dark 
body comes between us and him ? How can 
men believe in the Lord Jesus when they 
are such great believers in themselves ? 

The only case in which I am willing to 
bear with prejudice is when a dislike of me 
leads people to watch the more carefully what 
I have to say. If they will during a sermon 
be wide awake that they may find fault, I 
will forgive their object out of respect to their 
action. Of all devils the worst is the devil 
of slumber. He haunts places of worship, 
and it is not easy to chase him away, especially 
in warm weather. 1 greatly fear lest my 
people should become so used to me, that like 
the miller, they can go to sleep all the easier for 
the grinding of the wheels — I mean, all the 
quicker for the sound of my voice. I have 
read of an old Scotchwoman who always went 
to sleep when her own minister was discours- 
ing; but whenever there was a probationer 
from the college, she was noticed to watch 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. Ill 

him as a cat would a rat. Her minister said 
to her, " Janet, you paid me a very poor 
compliment. You listened with opened ears 
and eyes to the young man last Sunday, but 
you went to sleep when I preached this 
morning." The canny old lady replied, 
" Dear sir, you do not understand the matter. 
You are so sound and solid that I feel all is 
safe when you have got it in hand, and so I 
may take my rest. As to those young 
fellows, I do not know where they may go, 
and so I am bound to keep awake and watch 
them." Be so kind as to be similarly suspicious 
of me, and watch me in the same way. You 
may find out my weak points ; and it is not 
improbable that I may do the like for you. 
At any rate, I hope that more good may 
come of it than if you diverge into a snore, 
as some are reported to have done. This is 
the only case which I remember in which 
prejudice is likely to be of use to anyone. 

Butchers, it seems, are accustomed to do 
their work with a candle fastened upon their 
foreheads in this fashion. As I am not one 
of those gentlemen " who kills his own", 
you will excuse me if I have not managed 
the affair in an orthodox manner. There is 



112 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




house 



searching 



an old story of one who 
had lost his candle, and 
travelled all round his 
premises searching for it 
by its own light. It is 
told as a jest, and it must 
have been a mirthful in- 
cident where it happened. 
I remember an old gentle- 
man who could see very 
little without spectacles, 
but went up and down the 
for his glasses, looking 
through them all the time. The parable is 
this : a person full of doubts and fears about 
his personal condition before God is searching 
for grace within, by the light of that very 
grace for which he is looking. He is fear- 
fully anxious because he can see no trace 
of gracious anxiety in his mind. He feels 
sad because he cannot feel sad. He repents 
because he cannot repent. He has the 
candle on his forehead, and is seeing by 
the light of it, and yet he is search- 
ing for that very light, without which he 
could not search at all. Many a time a man 
laments that he does not feel, and all the while 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



113 



he is overwhelmed with pain through the im- 
pression that he does not feel pain as he 
should. 




This bull's-eye lantern may be used as an 
illustration of how persons may have the best 
of light and fail to use it. See, I have shut 
it up, and no ray of light comes from it. I 
am told that, when the Bible Society first 
started, its agents were very diligent in 
calling round to see whether householders 
had Bibles or not. One of them called upon 
an aged person and said, " Please, madam, 
have you a Bible ? " The excellent lady was 
astonished, not to say indignant, that persons 
should dare to come round, insulting respect- 
able Christian people, and asking them 
8 



114 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



whether they had a Bible. Of course she had 
a Bible. She would let the visitor see it with 
his own eyes, and then he would not think 
her a heathen any longer. "Mary, go up- 
stairs and fetch the Bible from off the 
drawers, and let the gentleman see the large 
family Bible which my father left me." The 
volume was brought down, and laid upon 
the table ; and when it was put on its back, 
it opened itself naturally at a certain place. 
" Ah ! " said the venerable lady, " well, after 
all, I think there is a providence in your 
coming ; for here are my spectacles which I 
lost years ago, and I could not imagine 
where they were.' 1 If she had not possessed 
a Bible, she would have thought herself a 
heathen ; but, having a Bible and never 
reading it, she thought herself an exemplary 
Christian. Bibles which are never read are 
like lanterns which are never turned on. 
How shall we answer for our neglect at the 
last great day? 

There is plenty of light in this lantern, but 
nobody sees anything of it; and here we have 
the portrait of many religious people who 
keep their knowledge to themselves. Oh, no, 
they never mention it; its name is never 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 115 

heard; they are tongue-tied professors. They 
pride themselves upon having plenty of 
Gospel light, but they never let out a ray ; 
they never say a word for Jesus to the souls 
around them. Perhaps they think that their 
example is too valuable to need a word to be 
added to it ; like the bell which was made of 
metal too precious to have a tongue put in it, 
and so could never be made to ring. Some 
folks are quite sullen in keeping themselves 
to themselves. If we try to turn on their 
bull's-eye, as I sometimes do, they are just 
a little hot, as this lantern has become. We 
have to mind how we handle them, or we 
shall burn our ringers. One who was gently 
spoken to, and urged to help a needy cause, 
replied crustily, " What I gives is nothing 
to nobody." Unconscious truth, no doubt, 
but said in a nasty way, making you feel as 
if you had tumbled backward upon a cir- 
cular saw. It is my business to attempt with 
members of the church to turn on the light 
which is now shut up ; and I hope you will 
therefore bear with my personalities, and not 
give me a warmer reception than you can 
help — I refer to the kind of warmth which 
comes through a hot temper. Suffer me to 



116 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

exhort you. Is it not the Lord's will that 
you should shine ? Is it not for your own 
comfort ? May there not be souls waiting in 
the dark till you bring them the knowledge of 
the Saviour ? Will you not remember Heber's 
missionary hymn, and practise its lesson ? — 

4 'Can we whose souls are lighted 
With wisdom from on high, 
Can we to men benighted, 
The lamp of life deny?" 

Some seem to have a great capacity for 
denying light to their fellows. 1 have known 
persons almost glory in their reticence with 
their own children. "I never spoke to him 
about religion," was the complacent confession 
of an old professor as to his son. Some of 
these hide away in the dark themselves, lest 
they should be called upon to work. A 
prospectus of a Burial Club began, "Whereas 
many persons find it difficult to bury them- 
selves." Alas ! to my knowledge many persons 
bury themselves most easily, and one of my 
constant labours is to fetch them out of the 
sepulchre of their indolence. I wish they 
would respond to my call, and not lie in their 
coffins and grumble at my disturbing them. 
Again, dark lantern, I must turn you on ! 



Sermons in candles. 117 




When we get the lantern pouring forth its 
brightness, or begin in earnest to study the 
Word of God, how cheering is the light ! 
No man shall walk in darkness, who uses the 
clear shining of revelation. By this he shall 
see treasures, detect enemies, and discern his 
way. I am pleased to see Christian people 
like lanterns fully turned on. Should not our 
town and our age get all the light from us that 
we can possibly give ? A friend who sits in one 
of the best seats, and is the owner of more than 
half a million of money, and puts a shilling 
into a collection, wants turning on to the full. 
A lady yonder, who has a first-rate education 
and remarkable fluency of speech, and yet 
has no work in the Sunday-school, or in the 
Bible Classes, wants her light turned on also. 



118 



SERMOftS IN CANDLES. 



And so does my friend, Mr. Candoit, who, 
as yet, has more capacity for work than ex^ 
perience in it : when I think of what lie might 
be doing, I am inclined to turn on to him to 
turn him on. However, I remember how hot 
1 found the bull's-eye lantern just now, and 
I will let him alone. I do not wish to drive 
anyone into a service so honourable. In 
all gracious work give me spontaneous com- 
bustion. Those who do not wish to give 
light will never do so. So good-bye, dark 
lanterns ! Before I quite part with you, I 
bequeath you this motto, Arise ! Shine ! 

Here is a 
common lan- 
tern. The wind 
may blow, but 
the candle is 
safe within. 
The groom 
can cross the 
stable -yard in 
a shower of 




is thus safeguarded. 



ram, or in a 
fall of snow, 
when his light 
On board ship also, the 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 119 

lantern is of the utmost use ; for even a gale 
of wind will not blow out the candle which 
is secure in a good lantern. 

Surely God will preserve his own Gospel, 
though Popes and monks, men ®f " modern 
thought", and theoretical scientists, blow at 
its candle with all the fury of fiends. Burn 
on, sacred light, that by thee men may be 
guided to the haven of rest ! Bright Pharos 
of the sea of time, thou Cross of Christ, cast 
thy splendour over stormy waves, and warn 
passing mariners to shun the iron-bound 
coasts of error ! 

The Providence of God is the great pro- 
tector of our life and usefulness, and under 
the divine care we are perfectly safe from 
every danger. 

11 Plagues and deaths around me fly; 
Till He please I cannot die : 
Not a single shaft can hit 
Till the God of love thinks fit." 

Yet we are apt to complain of the very 
providence which blesses us. Years ago a 
farmer returned from market with a golden 
burden, for he had sold his corn. He thought 
it hard that it should rain and spoil his best 
coat ; but when he came to the lone place 



120 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

between the woods, and perceived that a 
highwayman would have shot him if the rain 
had not damped his powder, he had a much 
more vivid idea of the w T isdom of God. 

Remember Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of 
the North. He was seized and taken to 
London to be tried as a heretic. On the road 
he fell from his horse, and broke his leg. His 
persecutors knew that his wont was to say, 
u It is all for the best " ; so they taunted him 
with the enquiry, "Is this all for the best?" 
and he meekly replied that he had no doubt 
it would turn out to be sa Gilpin was right. 
A delay was caused on the road, and he and 
his guard arrived in London just as Queen 
Mary died. They heard the bells ringing 
when they came to Highgate Hill, and 
learned that Queen Elizabeth was on the 
throne. He was too late to be burned : he had 
broken his leg, but he had escaped the flames. 
In some way or other the Lord will preserve 
his people from all evil, even as the lantern 
preserves the light which is placed within it. 

There is a still more happy preservation. 
"Preserved in Christ Jesus." What a precious 
word ! A feeble life is secure when hidden 
away in Christ. He it is that guards us safe 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



121 



from every ill design. Neither the world, the 
flesh, nor the devil can blow out the flame 
which he has kindled, for he surrounds it 
with his own almighty grace. Even to 
eternity our light shall shine if we by faith 
are put into Christ. 

But there are imitations of this security : 
there are confidences which are vain. A 
man may be so far a Christian as to be 
safe against the coarser vices ; but yet the 
tempter may find out a place where he lies 
open to attack. My assistant will play the 
part of the tempter, and blow at this candle. 




He has done no harm as yet, for the guardian 
lantern has covered the quarter upon which 
he has blown; but if he will try again, the 
result may be different. He may then hit 
upon the weak point. A man's religion may 



122 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



save him from certain sins, but not from 
others. He may not perish by drink, but 
he maybe ruined by "covetousness, which is 
idolatry " : he may escape the pestilence of 
profanity, and be carried off by the fever 
of pride. In vain are we guarded in head and 
feet, if a poisoned arrow enters the breast. 
A candle in one of the old emblems is made 
to say, "I lie open only here"; but it is 
just there that the wind enters and blows it 
out. Where there is a weakness the arch- 
enemy will find it out and bring his force 
to bear ; and as he is " the prince of the power 




of the air ", he can blow with a vengeance, and 
the man's candle is put out, because he had 
not found that perfect security which none 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



123 



but the Lord Jesus Christ can give. Beware 
of trusting to good resolutions or outward 
religiousness : these are cracked lanterns. 
[No man is safe out of Christ : he alone is 
the perfect protection of his people. " Ye 
are complete in him " ; but in no one else. 

I do not know 
whether I can man- 
age so to blow out 
this candle as to 
light it again by 
the help of its 
own smoke and this 
taper. Yes, I have 
managed it ; and 
it is a pretty ex- 
periment. See, the 
flame travels down 
the smoke, and 
lights the wick 
again. When a 
man has been a real Christian, if his light 
seems blown out he readily takes fire again, 
if he has not been long in an ill condition. 
He who stays from the House of God can be 
easily brought back if looked after at once. 
He that has known how to pray is soon 




124 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

set praying again after an unhappy neglect, if 
he be taken soon. Never leave backsliders 
long ; but with holy carefulness bring the holy 
fire to bear upon them as speedily as you can. 
The force of his former habit will aid you 
in restoring to the wanderer the religious 
feeling which had almost left him. The 
Lord Jesus is very tender in such cases ; for 
" a smoking flax he will not quench.'' Let 
none of us be guilty of delays, lest the de- 
struction of precious souls be laid at our door. 
The same symbol will apply, on the other 
hand, to all forms of evil fire. It is no wonder 
that seeming converts so often and so speedily 
go back to old habits. You think their sin 
extinguished ; but it is only the flame which 
is gone : the smoke of desire remains, and 
will soon catch fire again, and burn as strongly 
as before, if the flame of temptation is near. 
Oh, for grace to get that " fire of hell " snuffed 
out altogether ! Let beginners in grace, in 
whom the flame of sin has been freshly blown 
out, beware of their old companions, and 
haunts, and habits ; lest, going near the fire, 
their natural smoke of inclination should in- 
vite the flame of open transgression again to 
kindle upon them. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



125 



Here is a 
candle which 
is in a lantern 
of a tolerably 
respect able 
sort : at least, 
it was respect- 
able long ago, 
and you might 
not now have 
I noticed its for- 
lorn condition 
if it had not 
been for the 
candle within. 
So soon as you place a light within, the imper- 
fections of the lantern are shown up ; and it is 
the same with human characters. Many a man 
would have seemed a decent sort of fellow if 
he had not professed to be a Christian; but 
his open confession of religion fixed many eyes 
upon him, and his imperfections were at once 
observed of all observers. He who unites 
with a church, and takes upon himself the 
name of Christ, claims a higher character than 
others ; and if he is not true to his profession, 
his inconsistency is marked ; and very justly 







126 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

so. How often do we see that an uncon- 
verted man may steal a horse, but a Christian 
must not look over the hedge at it ! That 
which is winked at in a man of the world, is 
a grave fault in a Christian. It is no more 
than natural and just that great professors 
should be expected to be better than others. 
It is inevitable that the very light they have 
should reveal their faults and flaws. 

Brethren, let us not exhibit our candle in a 
dirty lantern, nor our religion in a doubtful 
character. I have heard of a minister who 
was a capital preacher, but he bought a 
wig of one of his hearers, and forgot to pay 
for it. A bad habit that ! Not to pay at all, 
is worst of all ; but even to be long-winded 
is objectionable. When the barber came 
home from the meeting he said, Ci That 
was a beautiful discourse ; but his wig spoiled 
it. I like his deep expositions ; but oh, that 
wig ! Will he ever pay for that wig ? " A 
friend who heard me tell this story remarked 
that "the wig stuck in the man's throat." 

Let us pay for our wigs if we wear such 
inventions, and let us see to it that there 
is nothing else about our person or character 
which may bring the gospel into discredit. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 127 

We have heard of a wonderful preacher, of 
whom they said that he preached so well 
and lived so badly, that when he was in 
the pulpit, they thought he ought never to 
come out of it ; but when he was out of 
the pulpit, they changed their minds, and 
sorrowfully concluded that he ought never 
to go into it again. Every man should be 
clean — it is a natural, sanitary duty; but 
there is a special precept which says, " Be ye 
clean that bear the vessels of the Lord ", and 
this relates to moral and spiritual character. 
An unholy minister is unclean with a ven- 
geance. Prominent persons are looked 
at through microscopes. The more light you 
have, the more will your faults be shown up 
and observed. 

In the case of this other lantern, little or 
no light would come from it, if it were not 
for its cracks and rents. The light passes' 
through the broken places. Do you not 
think that the sicknesses and infirmities of 
many godly people have been the making of 
them, and that the light divine has gleamed 
through the rifts in their tenements of clay ? 
Do not light-givers sometimes shine the 
better for sickness ? Some ministers preach 



128 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




the better for being afflicted. Do not wish 
your minister to be ill or to be tried ; but I 
cannot doubt the fact that the trials of 
ministers are the best part of their education. 
One who was rather a critic* in sermons used 
to ask, " Has the doctor been ill within the 
last six months ? For he is not worth hear- 
ing else." An old Scotch woman found that 
when her minister lost his sight he could 
not read his dry old manuscripts, and was 
therefore forced to preach extemporaneously. 
Perhaps she was a little cruel when she said, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



129 



" Praise be to God. It would have been 
well if he had lost his sight twenty years 
ago." To her mind the sermons were so 
much better when they came forth from his 
heart than when he read them from the 
sapless manuscript that to her the good man's 
loss of sight was a gain. If, in any way, 
you are able to tell out a sweeter experience, 
and so afford greater comfort to others 
through your body being like a broken 
lantern, be thankful for it. Happy are we 
if our losses are the gains of others. So 
long as our soul shines out with holier 
radiance, we will glory in infirmities. 

As adjuncts to a candle, we used to have 

■ < -^c ^ • i§ tinder - box, 

flint, steel, 
and certain 
brimston e 
matches. I 
am almost 
afraid to em- 
ploy these 
implements as illustrations, for they are 
almost as much out of date as the flint arrow- 
heads of the prehistoric period. Pew of 
you have ever struck a light with a flint in 
9 




130 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

your lives, though I hope you will all strike 
a light in some better sense. 

Shall I instruct you in the practical science 
of getting a light with flint and steel ? The 
first thing is to make your tinder, by burning 
or rather scorching a piece of rag. Toast it 
or char it till it is tenderly made into tinder. 
Neither do it too little, nor too much; cook 
your rags to a turn. Be very mindful to 
keep your tinder dry as a bone ; for a spark 
will be of no service if it does not fall 
where it will be nourished; and the least 
damp will kill it. The sparks of temptation 
would be harmless if it were not for the 
tinder of corruption in our hearts, Grood 
teaching is also lost unless it falls upon a 
mind prepared to receive it : so that the 
metaphor can be used either way. 

Having secured your tinder, you had next 
to know how to strike your flint and steel so 
as to create sparks. Many a knock of the 
fingers would you get if you did not look 
alive. Possibly you would also bark your 
knuckles if you did know the art, if the 
weather was cold and your hands were half 
frozen. So is it in your dealing with men's 
consciences : you may give a hard knock 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 131 

and fetch fire out of them, or you may break 
your own knuckles by bringing upon yourself 
personal ill-will. 

If you were so skilful or so fortunate as to 
cause a spark to drop into the tinder, you had 
to blow upon it very gently ; just as the first sign 
of grace in any heart needs encouraging witli 
the fostering breath of sympathy. How often 
have I seen a servant go down on her knees to 
blow at a coal which seemed to have a little 
life in it ! Let us do the like with those persons 
concerning whom we are somewhat hopeful. 

When the spark had become fairly pros- 
perous in the tinder, then you applied the point 
of your brimstone match. You do not quite 
know what I mean. Well, mind you do not 
make a brimstone match when you get 
married. The brimstone, at the sharpened 
point of the match, would take fire when 
it touched the spark, and then your labour 
approached its reward. When you had your 
match flaming, and smelling, you lighted 
your candle ; and having done with your 
elaborate apparatus, you popped the flat lid 
of the box upon the tinder to put it all out. 
This last operation of damping down resem- 
bles the behaviour of critics towards young 



132 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

preachers and writers if they see a spark or 
two of fire in them. I know this illustration 
by heart, for I had the lid popped upon 
myself when I was a young spark. The 
work was not done very effectually ; but this 
was not due to any want of fell intent on the 
part of my critic. I owe them much for 
which I feel no gratitude, because they 
meant me no good. 

I found it very difficult to procure this 
ancient relic in London : indeed, I had to give 
up all idea of purchase, and this specimen 
was specially made to order. Be glad that 
now you have lucifers and vestas, to flame 
forth in an instant ; for on a cold winter's 
morning it was tedious work to use this 
complicated instrumentality when it was in 
perfect condition, and many things might 
happen to make that condition imperfect, 
and render your labour fruitless. If you had 
the gout in your hand you could not strike 
the sparks ; if the tinder was damp the sparks 
could not live ; and if there happened to be 
no tinder, because you forgot to make it ; or, if 
the matches were missing, you were done for. 
Three cheers for the good old times of tinder- 
boxes ; may they never come back ! 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



133 



Let me set before you an admirable illus- 
tration, which 
is not one of 
my own, but 
comes from 
the great Mas- 
ter of assem- 
blies. Here is 
a candle, and 
of course we 
have brought 
it with a view 
to its giving 
light, but the 
absurd action 
that I am bent 
upon is to cover it up with a bushel. It 
would be a very ridiculous thing to be at the 
pains of providing a lighted candle and then 
to hide it under a bushel. Yet I will do so 
to make the folly apparent to you all. I 
notice that you laugh ; and well you may. 
You may use a bushel and use a candle ; but 
by putting the candle under the bushel you 
use neither of them, but mis-use both. I am 
sure none of you would be guilty of such an 
absurd action. And can it be that even a 




134 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

single person here would be so profane as 
to believe that the All-wise God would 
do that which we all condemn as folly ? 
And yet, when those of you who have grace 
in your hearts profess to believe that you are 
placed where you can do no good, you 
virtually charge the Lord with lighting a 
candle and putting it under a bushel. Yon- 
der is my respected brother, a working- 
man. Hear what he has to say: — "My 
dear Mr. Spurgeon, — You cannot expect 
me to be doing any work in the church, 
for my daily labour leaves me no time for 
anything else. I could call the larks up in 
the morning ; I am often abroad before the 
world is properly aired. Moreover, I have to 
work much too late to leave me a spare 
hour. I am willing, but quite unable to do 
a hand's turn for my Lord." Yes, yes ; I see : 
you have to complain of a bushel which hides 
your light. God has lighted you, and then 
has put you where your light is condemned 
to be unseen. Do you quite believe that it 
is so ? Have you no suspicion that, after all, 
you could shine, if you were exceedingly 
anxious to do so ? 

" There " ! cries another, " I have little 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 135 

patience with a man who talks in that fashion ; 
but as for me, I have hundreds of men to 
look after, and a great going concern, in- 
volving large capital, and this requires the 
whole of my energy both by day and by 
night. My cares are never over. Mine is 
brain-work of the most exhausting sort, and 
when I get away from the mill I feel no soul 
for reading, or prayer, or working in the 
cause of Grod. If it were hand labour, I 
should like the change to mental work ; but 
I cannot keep on for ever thinking, or I shall 
soon wear out my brain." Just so, my 
friend : God lias given you the light of his 
grace, and has then deliberately placed a 
great gold m bushel over the top of you ! 
Do you feel sure that it is so ? Is there 
not a still small voice, which whispers that 
there is something wrong ? 

But my friend Mrs. Fruitful, over yonder, 
says: "I quite agree with you, sir. These 
people are not tied to their homes as I am, 
for I have eleven children ; and what can I 
do ? I have a great deal more to do than 
you men dream of; and it is no fiction that 
a mother's work is never ended. If anyone 
can plead a good excuse from the Lord's 



136 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



work, I am sure I can." Grood sister, I 
sympathize with you, far more than with 
those who have already spoken. You have 
your share of life's burden in your large 
little family. It is true, eleven is better 
than so very many ; but I have no doubt 
they are a handful, a lapful, and a heartful. 
Yet, surely, it cannot be quite true that you 
are altogether denied the pleasure of shining 
for your Lord; else it would seem as if he 
had kindled you as his own candle, and then 
had put you under the bushel of a large 
family, to prevent your shining. 

Yet there is the candle, and there is 

the bushel. We 
cannot imagine 



i 







£|5^5^S-rf 



that the bushel is 
to be r n the top 
of the candle. 
Still, they must 
be in some re- 
lation to each 
other. If we 
must not put the 
candle under the 
bushel, would it 
be amiss to put 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 137 

the bushel under the candle? See how 
well it looks ! It is an admirable idea ! 
Let us carry out its principle ! Cannot 
the working-man talk to his mates, and be' 
a witness for Jesus in the shop ? Parsons 
are all very well, but holy artisans can 
carry the truth where we have no entrance ! 
Cannot the great manufacturer see to the 
interests of those whom he employs, and treat 
them, not as "hands", but as souls? Might 
he not do a world of good among his mill 
people if he had but a mind ? I think so. And 
you, good mother of those dozen children save 
one, surely you have a work ready to hand 
in your own house. What a splendid Sunday- 
school you have at home ! Your children 
could not have a better teacher; and, from 
what little I know of them, I should say 
that you could not have much finer children 
to instruct. You will not be forced to walk 
weary miles to get to your class, nor will 
you be tempted to neglect your house : you 
can stay at home and train for God valuable 
church-members, fine workers among the 
poor, and soul- winning missionaries for the 
home and foreign field. What nobler work 
can there be than that of a mother among 



138 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

her own little ones ? See how, by being set 
upon the bushel, the candle stands in a place 
of vantage, and obtains a worthy pedestal 
from which to spread its light far and wide! 
Wisely used, that which would hinder the 
idle will assist the diligent. This is one of 
the feats of faith, to turn difficulties into 
helps, to slay the lion and find honey in his 
carcase, and thus, on stepping-stones of 
growing victory, rise to cofhplete triumphs. 

If there be real light in a man, you cannot 
•keep him under a bushel: You may try to 
repress a man of talent, but he finds his level 
in due time. You may endeavour to destroy 
real grace when you meet with it among men ; 
but neither you nor the devil will succeed. If 
you manage to place the gracious soul under 
a sort of bushel, something will happen for 
which you were not looking. If there is the 
real life of God within the person who is 
despised and covered up, the flame will find 
out a way for the revelation of the light. 
Grace may be oppressed ; but it cannot be 
suppressed. In fact, it may be said of per- 
secuted believers as of Israel in Egypt, 
" The more they afflicted them, the more they 
multiplied and grew." See the covered candle 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



139 




^vy- 



burns the bushel. No, it is not a bushel ! It 
turns out to be a mere band-box. The light 
must, and will, burn its own way, and do its 
own work. That which is in a man will sooner 
or later come out. The genius that is in the 
man, and still more the spiritual life that is in 
him, will shine forth to the praise and glory 
of Grod ; and there is no stopping it. I have 
heard of a gentleman who said he had learned 
to conceal his religion ; and he believed that 
you might live in his house for a twelvemonth 
and never discover what his religion was. 
This he boasted of till one told him that he 
had lived two years in a man's house, and had 
never seen the colour of his money, for he 
was too poor to have any. 



140 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




This is not technically called a candle, but 
in effect it is one. A night-light is a delight- 
ful invention for the sick. It has supplanted 
the rushlight, which would frequently be 
set in a huge sort of tower, which, to me, 
as a sick child at night, used to suggest 
dreadful things. With its light shining 
through the round holes at the side, like 
so many ghostly eyes, it looked at me 
staringly ; and with its round ring on the 
ceiling, it made me think of Nebuchad- 
nezzar's burning fiery furnace. The night- 
light is so mild and quiet that it suits our 
weakness, and yet cheers our gloom. Blessed 
be the Child who first thought of it ! Does 
it not remind you of a good, tender nurse ? I 
always say — as a fine specimen of what I 
mean — my wife. She tells me that I can- 
not say this of her now, as she is so great an 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 141 

invalid ; but I can speak of what she has 
been, and would be now if strength sufficed. 
She has been far more than a night-light to 
me in hours of pain. She moves across the 
room like the ancient deities, who were said 
to float rather than to walk. What gentle 
grace and tenderness ! What unwearied 
watchfulness all through the night ! 

Do you remember the old charwoman 
nurse ? Was her name Sarah Gamp or Betsy 
Prig ? One evening, when you were sup- 
posed to be asleep, you saw her, in the glass, 
stirring your gruel, and she took a pinch of 
snuff right over the cup, to regale her lovely 
nose. No : you did not take your gruel like 
a man ; your stomach turned at the mess and 
at the creature who had stirred in the 
droppings of her snuff. Her voice was 
hoarse ; she stamped with her two beetle- 
crushers when she traversed the room ; she 
made your pillow hard when she shook 
it up ; and she seemed an ogre in your eyes. 
The only good point about her was that you 
got well all the quicker, that you might 
escape from her clutches. 

Honoured among women be the memory 
of Florence Nightingale I Her name and fame 



142 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

gave an impetus to the movement for trained 
nurses, which has been so fraught with com- 
fort to thousands. Our young ladies who 
devote themselves to this sacred service 
deserv.e all the encouragement we can give 
them. God bless you, gentle night-lights ! 

Our night-light is set in water to make it 
quite safe. We do well to guard ourselves 
against the personal dangers of our position : 
even when doing good we must be on our 
watch lest we fall into temptation. 

Night-lights are marked to burn just so 
many hours, and no more ; and so are we. 
Long may you each one shine and yield 
comfort to those around you ; but, whether 
your hours be few or many, may you burn 
steadily to the end ! If we may but fulfil 
our mission it will be enough. May none of 
us take fire in a wrong way, blaze into a 
shameful notoriety, fill the air with an ill 
savour, and then go out in darkness ere half 
our work is done ! 

There is room for fresh forms of candle 
still, and we should not wonder if the article 
once more became the subject of advertising, 
as soap is at present. In other lands, as, for 
instance, on the north-west coast of America, 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 143 

candles have a singular originality about 
them ; for there they burn a fish, a species of 
smelt, which grows nearly a foot long and is 
full of fat. We should rather think the smelt 
smelleth, when they put a rush or a piece 
of bark down the centre of him, and make a 
natural candle of him. The light must be 
rather fishy ; but so is everything else in 
that region, and therefore it does not matter 
much. 

There is, in China and the East Indies, a 
candle fly ; but though it bears the name, we 
do not suppose that it serves the purpose of 
a candle. We have heard of reading by the 
light of glow-worms in our hedges, but we 
doubt whether ordinary type could thus be 
deciphered. Glow-worms remind us of most 
expositors, of whom Young says, 

"The commentators each dark passage shun, 
And hold their failing candles to the sun." 

Eire-flies might serve our turn better, for 
they are like living lamps. They had a 
great charm for us when we saw them for the 
first time by the Italian lakes. The night- 
light is a sober night- comforter : may it be 
long before any of you learn its value in long 
hours of suffering ! 



144 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




Here is a candle which is as good as candle 
can well hope to be. The light is clear and 
pure. Speaking popularly, the candle is per- 
feet, and is giving forth a bright light. Yet, 
if you knew it better, you would take another 
view of it. It is disseminating black smoke 
as well as clear light. Here is a sheet of 
bright tin plate. Just hold it over the candle, 
and you will see that it is yielding some- 
thing other than light. Of course, there will 
be nothing on the bright tin but that which 
comes out of the candle. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 145 

Will one of you be so good as to put his 
finger on this tin, and then touch the tip of 
his nose and his forehead with it ? I cannot 
persuade any of you to try the effect ; but if 
you did so, you would prove to us all that 
the best of candles does not yield unmingled 
light. I am told that a man may be perfect. 
Well — no doubt we ought to be so, and in 
the Biblical sense I hope many are so. But 
if all possible tests were applied to them, a 
measure of imperfection would be found in 
the brightest of the saints. It is as old Master 
Trapp says, "We may be perfect, but not 
perfectly perfect.'' Grace makes us perfect 
after our kind ; but only in glory will the 
last remains of sin be altogether removed. 

I should not care to be like this sheet of 
tin, used to expose the faults of others, when 
it would be better to leave them unnoticed. 
Some peeping Toms have the gift of detect- 
ing the imperfections of good men : I do not 
covet their talent. In the process, these 
prying folk, like this tin, grow very sooty 
themselves. Do not attempt to imitate them. 

In the next similitude you have a simpler 
reminder of the imperfections to which men 
are liable. A candle needs snuffers, and men 
10 



146 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




need chastisements; for they are both of them 

subject to infirmity. In 
the temple of Solomon 
there were snuffers and 
snuff-dishes ;■ but they 
were all of gold. Grod's 
rebukes are in love, 
and so should ours be : 
holy reproofs in the 
spirit of affection are 
snuffers of gold. Never 
use any other, and use 
even these with discretion, lest you put out 
the flame which it is your aim to improve. 
Never reprove in anger. Do not deal with a 
small fault as if it were a great crime. If 
you see a fly on your boy's forehead, don't 
try to kill it with a sledge-hammer, or you 
may kill the boy also. Do the needful but 
very difficult work of reproof in the kindest 
and wisest style, so that the good you aim at 
may be attained. 

It was a shocking habit of bad boys to 
snuff the candle, and then open the snuffers 
and let the smoke and the smell escape. The 
snuffers are made on purpose to remove the 
snuff, or consumed wick, and then to quench 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 147 

it by pressure, and prevent any offensive 
smoke ; but young urchins of a mischievous 
sort would set the snuffers wide and let the 
filthy smoke fill the room with its detestable 
odour. So do some who hear of a brother's 
faults, make them known, and seem to take 
pleasure in filling society with unsavoury 
reports. I pray you, do not so. If the candle 
has something wrong with it, touch it care- 
fully, snuff it with discretion, and shut up 
the obnoxious matter very carefully. Let us 
be silent about things which are a discredit to 
Christian character. Keep an ill report secret ; 
and do not be like the young lady who called 
in a dozen friends to help her keep a secret, 
and yet, strange to say, it got out. Remember, 
you may yourself deserve rebuke one of these 
days ; and as you would like this to be done 
gently and privately, so keep your remarks 
upon others within the happy circle of tender 
love. To rebuke in gentle love is difficult, 
but we must aim at it till we grow proficient. 
Golden snuffers, remember ; only golden 
snuffers. Put away those old rusty things — 
those unkind sarcastic remarks. They will do 
more harm than good, and they are not fit things 
to be handled by servants of the Lord Jesus. 



us 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



See how precious material 
runs to waste if the light is 
not trimmed ! There is a 
thief in the candle , and so it 
takes to guttering and run- 
ning away, instead of yield- 
ing up its substance to be 
used for the light. It is sad 
when a Christian man has 
some ill habit, or sinister 
aim. We have seen fine 
lives wasted through a love 
of wine. It never came to 
actual drunkenness, but it 
lowered the man and spoiled 
his influence. So is it with a 
hasty temper, or a proud 
manner, or a tendency to find 
fault.* How many would be 
grandly useful but for some wretched impedi- 
ment ! Worldliness runs away with many a 
man's energies ; love of amusement makes 
great gutters in his time ; or fondness for feasts 
and gilded society robs him of his space for 
service. With some, political heat runs away 
with the zeal which should have been spent 
upon religion, and in other cases sheer folly 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 149 



and extravagance cause a terrible waste of 
energy which belonged to the Lord. You 
see there is tire, and there is light ; but some- 
thing extraneous and mischievous is at work, 
and it needs to be removed. If this is your 
case, you may well desire the Lord to snuff 
you, however painful the operation may be. 
Depend upon it, we have no life-force to spare, 
and everything which lessens our consecrated 
energy is a robbery of God. 

Here is a sputtering candle* You can 
light the thing, but it seems to spit at you, 
and crackle as if in a bad temper. Never 
mind : it is its pretty way, and it will get 
over it, and burn comfortably by-and-by. 
We once had among us a good brother — it 
is years ago, and he is now beyond our 
censure — he would always give, and give 
liberally, too ; but he took the money out in 
grumbling. He thought there were too many 
appeals ; he thought the thing ought to be 
provided for in another way ; he thought — 
in fact he seemed to be full of discontented 
thoughts; but he ended up by saying, " There's 

*I can give a specimen of it in actual fact, but I do not know 
how to sketch the sputter on paper. 



150 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

my share of it. It was a pity, for he was 
real good. If any of you have the sputtering 
habit, I would advise you not to spend much 
pains in cultivating it : it is not pretty, and 
does not commend a man to those about him. 
When a candle has been so long in the cellar 
that it has become thoroughly damp, it is apt 
to spit and sputter a little ; but there is no 
reason why you and I should keep in the cellar, 
and be sick of the blues ; let us abide in the 
sunnier side of the house, and then we shall 
burn and shine with a happy cheerfulness. I 
hope we are not cut-on-the-cross, nor born 
like Attila to be "the scourge of mankind.'' 
I suppose it needs all sorts of people to make 
up a world ; but the fewer of the grizzling, 
complaining sort, the better for those who 
have to live with them. Our sputtering 
candle has now got over his weakness, for he 
has burned out his damp bit ; and whenever 
you and I come to a cantankerous half -hour, 
may- we get through it as fast as possible, and 
keep ourselves to ourselves all the time, that 
nobody may know that we have been in the 
sulks. Go into your growlery, and get it 
over: better still, go into your closet and 
get it under. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



151 



We have seen a courteous contrivance at 
some tobacco shops for giving a light to 
passers-by. It may serve as a suggestion to 
ourselves for far higher purposes. If we 
know the divine truth, let us be ready to 
communicate it, and by our winning manner 
constantly say, " Take a light." Let us be 




approachable in reference to spiritual things, 
and we shall soon have the joy of seeing 
others taking a light from us. We know 
people to whom no one would ever speak in 
the hour of trial ; as well might they make a 



152 SEEMONS IN CANDLES. 



pillow of a thorn-bush. Tf people to whom 
they have never been introduced were to 
intrude their personal sorrows, they would be 
looked at with one of those searchers which 
read you from top to toe, and at the same 
time wither you up. On the other hand, 
there are faces which are a living advertise- 
ment running thus : Gtood Accommodation 
for Man and Grief. You are sure of a 
friend here. Certain persons are like har- 
bours of refuse, to which every vessel will 



-o^> 



y 



run in distress. When you want to ask 
your way in the street, you instinctively 
shun the stuck-up gentleman of importance ; 
and you most readily put the question to the 
man with the smiling face and the open 
countenance. In our church we have friends 
who seem to say to everybody, Take a Light ; 
may their number be greatly multiplied ! 

It should be a joy to hold a candle to 
another. It will not waste our own light to 
impart it. Yet holding a candle to another 
has a bitter meaning, as in these lines : — 

' Some say compared to Buononcini 
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny : 
Others aver that he to Handel 
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle." 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



153 




jeopardy. 



This candle is upside down, and it cannot 
be long before it puts itself 
out. When in our hearts 
the lower nature is upper- 
most, and the animal dom- 
inates the spiritual, the 
flame of holy light cannot 
be long kept alight. When 
the world is uppermost, 
and eternal things have a 
low place in the heart, the 
sacred life is in serious 
When the intellect crushes down 
the affections, the soul is not in an upright 
state. It needs that matters be quickly 
righted, or the worst consequences must en- 
sue. Our prayer should rise to Grod that this 
happen not to ourselves ; and when we see 
that it is so with others, we should be full of 
prayerful concern that they may be turned 
by the hand of God into a true and upright 
condition. 

Some men who are not quite upright waste 
much of their influence. To such we might 
apply the old and almost obsolete word — 
candle -waster. It is a pity to lose life in 
harmful or unprofitable ways. 



154 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



Here is a very important-looking candle. 




Its dimensions are aldermanic. You expect 
great things from so portly an illuminator. 
Look at the size of it. But when I light it, 
the illuminating power is very small. Can 
you see any light coming from it ? It is a star 
of the smallest magnitude. We have here the 
maximum of tallow and the minimum of ligrht. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 155 

The fact is, that only a little of the fat just 
near the centre ever gets melted. This makes 
a little well of hot grease, but the rest is as 
hard and cold as if there were no burning 
wick in the middle. Thus it is with men of 
more talent than heart : the chief part of 
them is never used. Many a great and 
learned minister, with any quantity of Latin 
and Greek tallow, is but very little useful 
because his ability is not touched by his 
heart. He remains cold as to the bulk of 
him. Many a great, rich man, with any 
amount of the fat of wealth, never gets 
warmed through : he is melted to the extent 
of a shilling or two, but his thousands are 
unaffected. Partial consecration is a very 
doubtful thing ; and yet how much we have 
of it ! What is wanted is "grace more 
abundant," to fuse the whole man, and make 
every part and parcel of him subservient to 
God's great design of light-giving. 

The main business is to have plenty of 
heart. I have noticed that speakers produce 
an effect upon their audiences rather in 
proportion to their hearts than their heads. 
I was present at a meeting where a truly 
solid and instructive speaker succeeded in 



156 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

mesmerizing us all, so that in another half 
minute we should all have been asleep. His 
talk was as good as gold, and as heavy. 
He was followed by a gentleman who was 
" all there ", what there was of him. He was 
so energetic that he broke a chair, and made 
us all draw in our feet, for fear he should 
come down upon our corns. How the folks 
woke up ! The galleries cheered him to the 
echo. I do not know what it was all about, 
and did not know at the time ; but it was 
very wonderful. An express at sixty miles an 
hour is nothing to that orator. He swept past 
us like — well, like nothing at all. He meant 
it, and we felt that he deserved to be cheered 
for such zealous intentions. He was all 
ablaze, and we were willing for a season to 
rejoice in his light. I do not hold him up 
as an example, for in warfare we need shot 
as well as powder ; but I could not help see- 
ing that a warm heart and an energetic 
manner will carry the day, where a cold 
ponderosity effects nothing. My friend was 
like the second candle in our wood-cut — the 
cobbler's candle with two wicks. His blaze 
was very large in proportion to the material 
which sustained it. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 157 

In our labour to do good we must not let 
our learning remain cold and useless. Dr. 
Manton was one of the best of preachers, 
being both instructive and simple. On one 
occasion, however, he preached before an 
assembly of the great, and he very naturally 
used a more learned style than was his wont. 
He felt greatly rebuked when a poor man 
plucked him by the gown, and lamented that, 
whereas he had often been fed under his 
ministry, there had been nothing for him on 
that occasion. The fire had not been so fierce 
as the tallow had been cold. It is a dreadful 
thing when hearers have more use for a 
dictionary than for a Bible under a sermon. 
A preacher may pile books on his head and 
heart till neither of them can work. Give 
me rather the enthusiastic Salvationist bear- 
ing a burning testimony, than your cultured 
philosopher prosing with chill propriety. 

Here is what your wise aunt in the country 
used to give you at night when you went 
down to the old farm-house, and time had 
come for bed. You said, "Aunt, what is 
this cage for? Is this a mad candle, that it 
needs to be thus straitly shut up ? '' "No ", 
she said, "we have had young people 



158 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 




here who have been so wicked as to read 
in bed, and you know 
how dangerous it is. 
Why, they might set 
all the bed-curtains 
alight, and so the 
house might take fire, 
and all your uncle's 
ricks would soon be 
blazing, and soon the 
whole village would 
go like a bunch of 
matches. So I put the 
candle in a guard to prevent mischief." 
Still, after all your aunt's lucid explanation, 
you did not like the look of this muzzled 
candle ; and I should not wonder if you 
took it out of its prison, and did a bit of 
reading by its naked light. Young people 
are so venturesome ! Now, it is very proper 
to be on your guard, in what you say, and 
what you do. In all companies it is well to 
be guarded in your behaviour. But is there 
not a way of being on your guard without 
diminishing the light of your cheerfulness? 
May you not be careful without being sus- 
picious? Here is just as effectual a guard 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



159 



for a candle as that wire cage; but it is 
far more bright and attractive. Let your 
prudence be always mated to your cheer- 
fulness. Be on the 
watch, but don't look 
as if you had been 
drinking a quart of 
vinegar. Guard 
against sin, but do 
not check everything 
that would make life 
bright and happy. 
Don't put out the 
candle for fear of 
burning down the 
house. 

In the matter of being on your guard 
against impostors who seek your charity, use 
common-sense but not harshness. I had 
rather be taken in every now and then than 
be always suspicious. One does not care to 
go about in armour all day and all night; one 
is glad to get his head out of the helmet, and 
lay it down on a pillow. It may be useful 
to us to be taken in sometimes, that we may 
see how weak we are — I mean the shrewdest 
of us. 




160 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



This second guard, so pleasant and bright, 
is my ideal. Here you have care without 
anxiety, and prudence without gloom. Be 
it so with us, that with a mortal hatred to all 
sin, we have a delight in all that is glad, and 
joyous, and pure. 

Here is a candle on 
a save- all — an inven- 
tion which is scarcely 
ever thought of now- 
adays, in this age 
of gas and general 
extravagance. Every 
prudent housewife 
had a save-all to 
burn' up the smallest 
remnant of candle. 
Economy is necessary 
for the poor, and salu- 
tary for the rich. 
He who would have 
much to give away 
should feel that he has nothing to waste. He 
who was heard to scold about a wasted match 
was found to be no miser, but a greater giver 
than anyone else. Use the save-all to pre- 
serve every fragment of time. " Redeeming 




SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



161 



the time, because the days are evil." How 
much can be done in odd minutes ! Many 
instances could be given to prove that it is 
so. Sanctify odd minutes, odd pence, and 
all sorts of oddments, and out of them you 
can bring glory to God. 




Here is an hour-glass and a candle. As 
the hour-glass runs, and the candle burns, we 
mark how the time passes away. In the old 
Puritan pulpits there used to be an hour- 
glass, and the preacher was expected lo 
preach as long as the sand of the hour-glass 
was running ; which, of course, was just an 
hour. A witty preacher, having on one occa- 
sion only reached to i( Eighteenthly '' when 
the hour-glass had run out, and having thirty 

heads to dilate upon, turned the machine 
11 



162 SERMONS IN CANDLES 



over and cried, " Brethren, let us have 
another glass." When you hear of the length i 
of timo that your ancestors gave to hearing 
discourses, be ashamed at the grumbling about 
long sermons, and do try to take in every 
scrap of the poor pennyworth which we are 
allowed to give you in three poor quarters of 
an hour. Whether we preach, or hear, time 
is hastening on Our sands of life will soon 
run out. Just as we are being borne along 
irresistibly every moment as the earth speeds 
in her orbit, so are we being carried away by 
the resistless course of time. How it flies to 
a man of middle age I How exceedingly fast 
to the aged ! We may say of the hours, as 
of the cherubim, (e each one had six wings." 
If everything is made secure by faith in the 
Lord Jesus, we need not wish it to be other- 
wise ; for the faster time passes, the sooner 
shall we be at home with our Father and our 
God. 

We feel, as we watch the decreasing candle 
and the falling sand, that we, at least, have no 
time which needs killing. What we have is 
all too little for our high and holy purposes. 
We want not cards, and dice, and scenic dis- 
plays for a pastime : our time passes all too 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



163 



rapidly without such aids. Those who kill 
time will soon find that time kills them, and 
they would gladly give worlds, if they had 
them, to win back a single hour. Remember 
the story of Queen Elizabeth's last moments, 
and take care to spend each hour as carefully 
as if you had no other hour to follow it. 




The next illustration is a warning, and 
not an example. You have often heard it 
said of such and such a person, " he is burn- 
ing the candle at both ends." Spendthrifts 
waste both capital and interest ; and by both 
neglecting business and wasting their sub- 
stance on expensive pleasures, they burn the 
candle at both ends. The vicious not only 
exhaust their daily strength, but they draw 



164 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

upon the future of their constitutions, so 
that when a few years have gone they are 
old men before their time. Beware of 
burning the candle at both ends. It will go 
fast enough if you burn it only at one end ; 
for your stock of strength and life is very 
limited. If there is anyone here who is 
sinning on the right hand and on the left, 
let him forbear, and not be in such fearful 
haste to endless ruin. Let this candle cast 
a light upon the folly of prodigality, and 
may the prodigal hasten home before his 
candle is burned out. Did you ever see a 
candle used in that way ? You do not live 
with folks so mad ; but if you look abroad 
in the wide world, you may see how thou- 
sands are squandered and lives are cut short 
by burning the candle at both ends. 

Some good people are unreasonable to- 
wards ministers and evangelists, and want 
them to be worked to death. Many a valu- 
able man of Grod has been lost to the church 
by his burning his candle at both ends. 

This candle has fallen upon evil times. I 
have a bottle here full of a black material, 
which is to fall upon the name of this candle. 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



165 



When I tell you that this bottle contains a 
quantity of steel-filings, you will at once 
prophesy that the light will be put out. 




Let us see what will happen ! Why, well, 
instead of putting the candle out, I am 
making it disport itself as candle never did 
before ! Here we have fireworks, which, if 
they do not quite rival those of the Crystal 



166 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

Palace, have a splendour of their own. Do 
you not think that often when Satan tries 
to throw dust upon a Christian by slander, 
he only makes him shine the brighter. He 
was bright before, but now he coruscates, 
and sends forth a glory and a beauty which 
we could not have expected from him, for it 
never could have come from him if it 
had not been for the temptations, trials, and 
spiritual difficulties with which he has been 
assailed ? God grant that it may be so with 
us in all time of our tribulation ! May we 
turn the filings of steel into flashes of light ! 
The next illustration consists of two 
candles, and I am going to read, if I can, by 
the light of them. It may have happened 
to you at home, when you burned candles, that 
you required two of them. It needed some 
sense to arrange them if they were of unequal 
heights. I will place them here in this 
fashion, and I will sit down to read by their 
light. I cannot see, for I have put the tali 
candle in front and the shorter candle behind ; 
the short one is envious, and causes the 
tall one to cast an injurious shadow over 
my book. It seemed natural to put the 
greatest first, but I see that it will not 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



167 



work. I will put the shorter candle in 
fronts and put the longer one behind. Now 
I get the light of them both. Here is the 




lesson: Always put the weaker brother 
in the place of honour if you can, and thus 
make the best use of his light, and prevent 
his creating a shadow through envy. Notice 




the order of marching in the Stockwell 
Orphanage when the children walk out to 
worship, or to the Common. The rule is, 



168 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

that "the smallest boys and girls shall lead 
the way. In the old method the taller 
children blocked up the vision of the little 
ones, and also went along at a pace too great 
for the juniors; but on our plan the taller 
boys can see over the heads of the shorter 
ones, and the pace is toned down to suit 
little feet. 

This is a suggestive rule for the young, 
and I trust that we who are older will not 
depart from it. Church members should 
make this the law of precedence in the house 
of the Lord, toeaker brethren first considered. 
Let us not go our own pace, but consider 
their weakness, lest we cause any one of 
them to stumble. He that has only a little 
property, a little, talent, a little position, and 
a little grace, must be first thought of. It is 
not ours to strive for the first places, but in 
honour to prefer one another, looking more 
to the benefit of the whole body than to our 
own comfort or honour. 

We will conclude as they do at open-air 
entertainments — with the greatest display 
of our fireworks. 

Here are many candles uniting their bril- 
liance ; they all hang upon one support, and 



SERMONS IN CANDLES. 



169 



shine by the same light. May they not repre- 
sent the church of Christ in its multiplicity, 




variety, and unity ? These candles are all 
supported upon one stem, they are all giving 
forth the same light, and yet they are of all 
manner of sorts, sizes, and colours. A great 
way off they would seem to be but one light. 
They are many, and yet but one. I happened 
one evening to say that nobody could tell 
which was the "U.P.", and which was the 
Free Church, or which was the Wesleyan, or 



170 SERMONS IN CANDLES. 

the Primitive, or the Salvation Army, or the 
Baptists, and so on ; but one strong old 
Baptist assured me that the "Dips" gave 
the best light. Another said the Presby- 
terians were, on the whole, cast in the 
best mould ; and a third thought the Eng- 
lish Church was made of the truest wax. 
I told them that some of the Baptists 
would be the better if they had another 
Baptism. The Free Churches might be none 
the worse for being more established in the 
faith ; and even the Methodists might im- 
prove their methods. The main question is 
possession of the one light and fire of God, 
the flame of divine truth. Those who shine 
by divine grace are all one in Christ Jesus. 
What a glory will there be in the one 
church when all her members shine, and all 
are one ! May such a day come quickly ! 
Amen. 

Have I not proved that a world of illus- 
tration may be found in a candle ? 



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